I think Gary bit the dust :(

[BettaMomma]

Poor Gary.
He was living the high life with his harem in the female community tank, living high on the hog, cleaning up all the leftovers that the girls dropped, having gourmet cucumber slices cooked for him on a regular basis, all the algae wafers he wanted, etc. Then he got way too messy, making way too much slime and making my girls all sick.. so I pulled him out and set up a little 1/2 gallon tank until the 2G hospital tank frees up.

Turned out Gary HATED the 1/2 gallon tank (Can ya blame him) even tho he had fresh plants, algae wafers, food, etc. to eat - he decided to venture out of the tank. He crawled out, went across the kitchen counter and crashed down hard 3 ft. to the kitchen floor where he broke a hunk of his shell off and laid there until I found him the next morning. (SHAME on me for not covering his tank! uugh)

Anyway - I picked him back up and put him right back into his tank. He was pretty stunned, and did't come out of his shell for several hours, but he finally did and seemed like he'd be okay after all. Yesterday, I went to give him his daily water change, and he wasn't fully extended and sucking on anything, but he wasn't all pulled into his shell either. I scooped him up and put him into a solo cup while I changed out his water and then put him back in. He hasn't really moved from that position for well over a day now. He's laying on his back, his feelers aren't moving at all - he's just kinda halfway sticking out of his shell.

I'm kind of fearing the worst for him. Poor Gary.

 

[Synirr]

Aww, poor Gary. I'm so sorry to hear that. I hate to say it, but that is the position snails are usually in when they've died...

There's a trumpet snail in one of my betta tanks right now that has a huge chunk of shell missing (must have smashed himself between the river stones in that tank,) but he's still going strong

 

[Bettabelieveit]

Hey you, it's Saucy... I'm SO sorry about Gary. Have you tried poking him at all? I know the one snail I just got is in that position, but I plopped an algae wafer right down by him and he pulled back into his shell...

Yeah, when you told BB and I that he fell off the counter, I thought the worst... who knows how long he could have been there. Poor ol' Gary... *hugs*

 

[Ethos]

I hate it when someone dies........It makes you feel all.....dirty.
But what could you do? Nothing lives forever? Somethings pass earlier than others.....

 

[Joby]

Awww poor Gary

Curiosity would get the better of me and I'd have to poke him with something to check if he was gone or not

 

[SPLiSH]

Well if he's dead, you'll know if you give him a bit of a sniff. If he smells repulsive, he's dead. When my little Wayne passed on, he did exactly what you say Gary is doing: he stayed half-out of his shell on a plastic plant. I took him out of there for fear he might cause problems with my betta, and he STUNK.

Also if he's one of those golden apple snails, they have a fairly transparent shell and you can usually see their heart beating. So if you can see inside his shell but it's all still, he's probably passed away.

 

[50000_tears]

yeah my two snails died around the same time (week must of been lonely when the other died) my neighbor said to sniff him (on the first one) he smellt BADDDDD...so when the other "died" sniffed him same nasty smell...i wont forget the smell in my life

 

[BettaMomma]

Well - last night I was gonna poke him, but when I moved the tank he did move his feelers a teeny bit, so I left him alone.

This morning I moved his tank the same way but he didn't move at all.
I dropped a piece of cucumber into his tank last night but that didn't make him move at all.

I'll see what happens when I get home.
Poor Gary.

 

[Karah's_Mommy]

Poor Gary <hugs Bettamomma>

 

[BettaMomma]

If Gary is a goner, I will get a Gary II and put him into the tank that Gary was going into. I'm so sad - poor Gary was such a character and such a good little snail.

He lived high on life for the short while he was with his harem.
That might in itself be a better life than some snails have. I guess that's some comfort.

Although having had Gary makes me smile. He was growing so big, and had gotten to the point where he was so very ugly he was cute.


*note: i'm not ultra super upset about him just yet, because I fully expect to get home tonight to find him sucked onto the side and perfectly fine*

but I doubt it.
a mom can hope, can't she?

 

[eudielynn]

I really hope you do find him stuck on the side of his bowl when you get home. I put Snail in the 20 gal with Goldie over the weekend when I was giving Batista a dose of meds for his fin rot. (He's been tail biting again.) I looked into the tank several times and Goldie and Snail had a bit of a lover's tryst, so I may have more snails than I know what to do with before long. If you need a Gary II, or Gary III, or Gary IV, or.... well, you get my drift.

 

[BettaMomma]

DOH! That's actually quite hilarious.
I wonder how snails ship....

HEY! On a totally different note..
I wanted to tell you that we were flipping thru the channels yesterday and ran across a wrestling match.

I saw Batista. Raaarh! What a hottie.

Okay, anyway - back to snails.

 

[50000_tears]

does he smell horrible or not??...snails are cuter than any wrestler

 

[Saucy]

Well if you do get a snail, I'll suggest a Gold Inca snail. I was lucky enough to get one from my local Petco, and he's FABULOUS!! He's always out of his shell wandering around the tank. And he's bright yellow at that. Maybe a little over 1.5". He's soooo cute... my Larry. I also have a mystery black snail and a teeny little red snail that's really cute.

Please tell me you saw the episode where Spongebob got the new snail (Larry) because Gary was sticking to Patrick only because he had a sandwich in his back pocket? If not, you should... so funny.

Gotta keep us posted on if he's okay or not. He could still be in serious shock from his fall... just give him time and hang in there, ma.

 

[ravekiss]

How's Gary today? Any updates?