Mystery Snail died - recommendations

[Oblio]

Picked up a Mystery Snail from our LFS and seemed to be doing well since Thanksgiving. A week or so ago he (or she) would float and drop, and move around normally when not floating. Then 'he' seemed to be gradually more lethargic. Over the past 36 hours there has been no movement, with snail upside down, inside shell, lying on substrate. Out of concern for the remaining fish, I pronounced him dead and removed him.

Water:

I believe the tank has gone through a fish cycle with the average parameters since Dec 3rd as follows:

Size: 125 G (US)
Ammonia: 0.12 (Range 0.25->0, currently 0)
Nitrite: 0.0
Nitrate: 8.7
pH: 6.9
Temp: 78 F

I haven't had snails since they took over a small tank when I was a child so I didn't think I would get attached to one. But, it is depressing that this one died. Any recommendations on what went wrong and how to prevent? I would like to get some more but I do not want to doom them to the same fate.

Community is 9 Glofish Tetras, 7 Buenos Aries Tetras, 8 Corys.

 

[Sgooosh]

Picked up a Mystery Snail from our LFS and seemed to be doing well since Thanksgiving. A week or so ago he (or she) would float and drop, and move around normally when not floating. Then 'he' seemed to be gradually more lethargic. Over the past 36 hours there has been no movement, with snail upside down, inside shell, lying on substrate. Out of concern for the remaining fish, I pronounced him dead and removed him.

Water:

I believe the tank has gone through a fish cycle with the average parameters since Dec 3rd as follows:

Size: 125 G (US)
Ammonia: 0.12 (Range 0.25->0, currently 0)
Nitrite: 0.0
Nitrate: 8.7
pH: 6.9
Temp: 78 F

I haven't had snails since they took over a small tank when I was a child so I didn't think I would get attached to one. But, it is depressing that this one died. Any recommendations on what went wrong and how to prevent? I would like to get some more but I do not want to doom them to the same fate.

Community is 9 Glofish Tetras, 7 Buenos Aries Tetras, 8 Corys.

there should be 0 ammonia at all times. maybe he died because of ammonia stess
sorry for your loss.

 

[itiwhetu]

The Ammonia reading will because he died. You may have just got a sick or old one to start with. Try again they are cool.

 

[Colin_T]

I don't think the ammonia would have been the issue considering the pH is below 7.0

Is the nitrate reading actually 8.7?

What sort of test kit did you use to get decimal places on these readings?

-------------------
Are you sure the snail is dead?
Does it stink really badly?
Can you open the operculum (trap door they close)?

If it doesn't smell bad and you can't easily open the operculum, the snail is simply stressed and has closed its shell up.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week and see if it comes back out.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

 

[Oblio]

I don't think the ammonia would have been the issue considering the pH is below 7.0

Is the nitrate reading actually 8.7?

What sort of test kit did you use to get decimal places on these readings?

-------------------
Are you sure the snail is dead?
Does it stink really badly?
Can you open the operculum (trap door they close)?

If it doesn't smell bad and you can't easily open the operculum, the snail is simply stressed and has closed its shell up.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week and see if it comes back out.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

I have an API kit, these are average readings. Here are the actual values. I'm still struggling with interpolation, hence my desire to make a DIY optical reader. Note that Temp and Ammonia are scaled for graphing purposes.

Date	Temp/10	pH	Ammonia x 10 ppm	Nitrite	Nitrate
12/3/2021	7.8	7.1	2.5	0.0	15.0
12/4/2021	7.7	6.8	2.0	0.0	7.0
12/5/2021	7.7	6.8	2.5	0.0	7.0
12/5/2021	7.9	6.8	1.0	0.0	7.0
12/6/2021	7.9	6.8	1.0	0.0	7.0
12/7/2021	7.86	6.8	1	0.0	7.0
12/7/2021	7.86	6.8	1	0.0	6
12/8/2021	7.82	7.1	0	0.0	15
12/9/2021	7.85	7.2	0	0	7

 

[Colin_T]

Don't worry about trying to average out water quality levels. What counts is the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH on the day. When your filter has finished cycling, the ammonia and nitrite should remain on 0ppm.

The nitrate could be from your water supply (tap water).

 

[Oblio]

Don't worry about trying to average out water quality levels. What counts is the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH on the day. When your filter has finished cycling, the ammonia and nitrite should remain on 0ppm.

The nitrate could be from your water supply (tap water).

I normally don’t average but it’s been dynamic so thought it may be useful. Ammonia has been decreasing and was 0 when the snail died. Tap Nitrate is near zero. Hopefully ammonia is still at zero with the recent dead snail. I’m at a robotics competition so will need to check and do WC later today.

 

[Slaphppy7]

If the operculum was tightly closed, and the snail didn't smell bad, it wasn't dead.

You'll know when a MS dies, the smell is overwhelming

 

[Colin_T]

You'll know when a MS dies, the smell is overwhelming

I reckon a dead catfish is worse

 

[Oblio]

My snail was immobile for 72 hrs with a closed shell, I hope he wasn't still alive when I put him in the garden . He was fairly active a week ago, and then nothing. I'm the type of person who rescues spiders (catch and release outside), but I do kill roaches and mice with prejudice

 

[Slaphppy7]

I reckon a dead catfish is worse

Not when they are fried, grilled, or broiled....then, they are delicious

 

[Slaphppy7]

My snail was immobile for 72 hrs with a closed shell, I hope he wasn't still alive when I put him in the garden . He was fairly active a week ago, and then nothing. I'm the type of person who rescues spiders (catch and release outside), but I do kill roaches and mice with prejudice

They will do that from time to time...

 

[Fishmanic]

I’m at a robotics competition so will need to check and do WC later today.

Robotics competition - That sounds very interesting. You should start a thread in the chat area of the forums and tell us more about it.

 

[Oblio]

Robotics competition - That sounds very interesting. You should start a thread in the chat area of the forums and tell us more about it.

Thread here

BTW - My team took home a trophy for Robot Performance

 

[Colin_T]

Robot Performance

what is robot performance?

oh baby, this robot performed really well in bad last night, if you know what I mean