Warning, those of a squeamish disposition may wish to skip this entry and move on to others, or browse my very extensive blogroll instead.
I’ve had two bumblebee nerite snails in my tropical biorb for just under a year, but over the last few weeks, I’ve been battling with the return of the brown algae. This is partly because nitrates in my tap water have suddenly increased but also because one of the nerites seemed to be ailing, not feeding well and mostly staying in one spot. From what I’ve read on the internet, nerite snails only have around 1-2 year lifespan anyway, so it wasn’t totally unexpected, so it was time to buy a friend.
This time, I ordered a Ruby Nerite, and as my original bumblebee nerites were (for reasons forgotten) originally christened Bill and Ted, there was only one name I could bestow on him: Rufus.
There was only one problem, from the moment he was placed in the aquarium, Rufus the snail seemed painfully shy. He didn’t want to come out and say hello, instead staying curled up in his shell on the pebble I originally placed him on.
Not to worry. Snails can sometimes take a couple of days to aclimatise. I checked that the water parameters were fine, made sure there was some fresh cucumber in the tank to tempt him out of his shell and hoped that he wouldn’t take long to shake off his sluggishness (‘scuse the puns). Every day, I would pick him up out of the tank, check that his trap door was closed and that he didn’t smell (I’d been assured I would know if they were dead – dead snails hang out of the shell and smell VILE). Apart from the odd Monty Python joke between me and Akra (“they’ve sold you a Norweigan Blue” … “he’s pining for the fjords”) nothing very exciting happened.
Until the other day. I picked up the shell for my nightly sniff (that’s a particularly disturbing sentence, but I shall leave it alone, just for the comedy value) and as I slowly lifted it up… everything suddenly fell out. Trapdoor … rotting snail innards… the lot. I’m only a little ashamed to confess that I did let out a rather girlie scream at the shock.
So it’s a little bit dead then.
Replacement is on order.
10 responses so far ↓
1 Alley Katt // 7th May 2007 at 8:34 pm
Yeeeuuuuugggghhhh!
Did it just plop, or did it splosh?
2 Tami // 7th May 2007 at 9:06 pm
I like that – a LITTLE bit dead! HAAA! HAAAA!
3 Elle // 8th May 2007 at 10:43 am
O.M.G.
That was way too much information.
*yet another reason not to try and have living things in a tank at home*
4 Pewari // 8th May 2007 at 4:29 pm
Alley Katt: dunno – think I drowned out the sound with my shriek ;)
Tami: ;)
Elle: there was a reason I put a warning at the top of the post!!
5 Elle // 8th May 2007 at 7:03 pm
“Elle: there was a reason I put a warning at the top of the post!!”
I know. But reverse psychology makes you want to do something even when told not to. It’s like peering over the top of the back of the sofa when the scary parts of Dr Who are on. Or being told not to touch the big red button that’s on a console. I couldn’t help myself! :)
6 Alley Katt // 8th May 2007 at 7:10 pm
QUOTE: Or being told not to touch the big red button that’s on a console. I couldn’t help myself! :) /QUOTE
I put a button icon on one of my websites once and put a note underneath saying do not touch the button. It led to a page that said nothing to see. My hit counter was through the roof though. :)
Curiosity gets the better of logic.
7 TopCat // 9th May 2007 at 9:10 am
Oh dear your poor snail. If you are getting a lot of brown algae try reducing the amount of food you place in the biOrb, it is surprising how little food fish actually need. If you are over feeding you will be harming the fish in the long term.
If you are 100% confident you are not over feeding then look at how long you have your light on and reduce it by 1 hour and see if this improves the situation.
I’ve had my biOrb for ages now and never had problems with brown algae. There are great :)
8 Pewari // 10th May 2007 at 11:59 am
TopCat: thanks for the tips, but the only thing that has changed is reduced snail activity and the nitrates out the tap have increased. I’m fixing the nitrates by switching from API Stress Coat to SeaChem Prime and my replacement snails arrived this morning :)
9 Ann // 31st May 2009 at 12:59 pm
I have a tropical biorb fish tank , one morning i noticed that there was a what a think is a water snail. I have now found another ? I do not know how they got in. Can anyone shed any light ?
10 Pewari // 31st May 2009 at 7:39 pm
Ann: the usual route is by hitching a ride on some new real plants :)
There’s two ways you can get rid: you can treat the tank with anti-snail stuff (though not advisable if you have non-pest snails or any shrimps or anything like that… read the label carefully), or you can carefully pick out each pest snail.
To make the latter easier, you can put a piece of cucumber in the bottom of the tank (weighed down) which will help tempt them out of hiding, then lift it out in the morning. Repeat until you think you’ve got them all :)
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