Please help!!! Dead snail

[juliehodson]

My anil has just died but it has a tiny feather duster living in the shell. Should I just remove the snail and let the feather duster die as well or should I leave it in the tank but will it decompose and rot in the water or shoulds i try and remove the feather duster?? Please someone help me!!!!

 

[juliehodson]

"anil" was meant to be "snail" sorry!

 

[Fuzzy]

hmmmm.... leaving the snail in there doesnt sound like a good thing to do and if u did the nitrites and stuff would probaly kill the feather dusters if left on. how hard is it for hte feather dusters to come off?

 

[juliehodson]

Well the feather duster is actually living inside the shell and it just pops out a little hole every so often but when i go near the shell the duster hides away so havent a clue how to get it out. I will get my boyfriend to remove the snail today. it is really disgusting

 

[ostrow]

I'd leave it. The feather duster is beneficial to the tank. And they are cool IMO, and reproduce on their own. Snails tend to die in captivity after a year or so anyway. This is bad b/c research is showing that the snails we typically keep in the aquarium typically can live upwards of a decade or two in the wild...

But I'd leave it in there if I were you. If the snail is dead, just move the shell with feather duster to a less conspicuous place if you don't like it. But I don't see why you wouldn't like it...

 

[juliehodson]

Hi there people! I've had a successful operation.

I took the snail out (before i saw the message from you ostrow) and removed the dead slimy remains of the snail. Then I rinsed it in a bucket of salt water. I wasn't sure if the tiny feather duster had been washed away but I put the "empty" shell back in my tank and after about 5 minutes the duster appeared!!
Woohoo!!

Hopefully it will not be traumatised by the experience and will grow into a nice big feather duster.
Thanks for all your help!!!

 

[Fuzzy]

thats great. lol the wierdest thing is today at school i thought of what u did and the whole day i thought i would come home and look aat ur thread and see the post u made about removing the snail and well it really happened

 

[ostrow]

I'm just puzzled why you had to remove the snail. If you have a reef you must ahve pods and worms ... if not your rock is not doing much in the way of filtration. If you do then there was no need to remove the snail. One dead snail is good food for those guys to get them really multiplying. Hardly a concern for a spike in anything...

 

[juliehodson]

LOL lionfish ur crazy !!!!

I just didnt like the idea of a dead snail sitting in my tank. It didn't look very good

I think I do have worms. Well I know I had one b ut it crawled out of the rock and died I don't have a very good record for keeping things alive do I lol.

anyway my fishies r great and I love my new red leg crabs. they r great little cleaners.

Oh yeah and I now have 3 feather dusters living in the shell. They each have their own little hole and it's just so lovely!!!

Thanks 4 all ur support guys uve just been so great. I'm getting all emotional. Kiddin on I'm going mad hahahaha