Rabbit Snails

[N0body Of The Goat]

To my horror, I've seen my original Steatocranus attack my two newer Golden Rabbits and a Cocolate Orange Spotted tonight, prompting a search and rescue mission for all my Rabbits that were in the Rio240 (still got one Yellow Antennae version left to find and rescue).

It looks as if one of the Golden Rabbits has lost both antennae, but its eyes look undamaged

Having moved all found ones through to the Korrall60, I'm hoping that someone can shed light on antennae being re-grown, a little like a fish healing after scale damage after a fight for example...

I'm wondering what has caused this aggression, as there are literally hundred of tiny Bladder Snails that (he?) could have eaten instead of going for a snail with a shell almost as big as (him?). Perhaps the addition of the new Lionheads has brought out the territorial nature of the original one, who has had to protect the "bogwood mountain" from prospective tenants over the weekend, so now anything under his shelter is the enemy?

I've now raized the mountain, leaving just what was the second tier of the stack, which has opened up the right side of the tank somewhat and evicted the original Steatocranus from his home (but there are six small plant pot caves dotted around).

Just hope the snails will recover and not suffer stress-related illness or worse yet, death, due to not having feelers to sense what is going on around them...

 

[Donya]

Unfortunately, the size of the snail is probably what made it an appealing target: easier to get a bite of something soft and fleshy without getting a mouthful of crunchy shell at the same time. Large, wiggly feelers are a perfect target for a hungry fish. Although I am unfamiliar with the fish species you have, I would somewhat doubt it's a territorial behavior. A lot of fish will munch one snail feeler, decide it tastes good, and then be repeat offenders as long as snails keep presenting new feelers to snack on.

Snails ususally regrow lost feelers, although it can take a while and depends on how much tissue was damaged. I have seen a few cases where the area just formed scar tissue, but those are in the minority and in the long run it was no big problem for the animals. If there is some sort of stump left, the feeleres will probably return eventually. I've never seen death due to feeler loss, provided the snails are removed from the source of harassment (continued nipping at the foot and body is a different issue). Feeler loss is a common ailment that most gastropods handle pretty well.