Japanese Trapdoor Snails

[teenfish-E]

Hi, i had a few questions about these snails, I was wondering can you tell if your snail is dead? Can you tell when they are pregnant? I put the snails in my 55 gallon tank not heated along with a ton of 3-4 in. comet fish, which i plan to sell or give away soon and start over with feeders from the pet shop. Save the feeders, lol. I put the snails in a few days ago, same with fish, and the fish are fine but the snails seem to not move. Every now and then i see one of them move otherwise there in the same spot all day, I know of at least one that hasn't moved since i put it in and i think its dead just i'm not sure. The snail still has its trapdoor shut, but has not moved from that spot, Do you think its dead? Thanks for your help, i would appreciate anything you know about these snails.

 

[TylerFerretLord]

Take the snail out and try to open its trapdoor. If it opens easily, it's dead. If it holds shut, it's alive, and probably just getting used to the new tank.

 

[~T~]

Take them out and give them a sniff. If their trapdoors are tightly shut then chances are they are alive. They are probably just scared of the goldfish.

 

[Esfa]

yeah, take a good sniff.

when my nerite snail died, my whole room STANK for a day.

 

[teenfish-E]

Thanks everyone, I took the snails out one by one and smelled them, lol, the three almost didn't have a smell so i was pretty sure they are alive, one was one the glass so i new that one was alive and the other smelt real bad, so im assuming its dead yet the trapdoor was still closed does that still mean its dead if it stinks? Also i don't know if i was supposed to but after i smelled it i shook it and i could feel something moving up and down inside the shell, is that another way to tell if its dead? So i ordered 6 snails off a website, and got 2 DOA's but there was an extra baby. So right now i have 5 snails including one baby. Also does anyone know how to tell if one of these snails is pregnant?

 

[PondGuy]

For sluggish snails (no pun intended) you might want to check this high school science fair project.
Oxygenation effects on trapdoor snails
It looks like they do not perform well in high oxygen levels. You might try lowing the oxygen levels in your tanks. Obviously for the fishes you want to be careful how you do this but it may make the snails much more active.

 

[three-fingers]

That study has many, many issues.

From reading it, I'd say all it shows is that they don't like much water movement. But they can probably be habituated to it very easily anyway.

Doesn't suggest anything to me about oxygen levels.