Tiger Snail Acting Funny :/

[GuppyGirl20]

I have a tiger snail in a five gallon tank. He's usually very active but ever since I put a heater in my tank he has been very sluggish/not active at all. I have no idea about snails so I have no idea what their behavior is like. Does anyone know why this is happening. Normally he runs circles around my tank but he's been immobile on/near the heater then he finally moved but he's been in that spot for about a day now . Help?

 

[frothhelmet]

what is a tiger snail?

 

[Ninjouzata]

I imagine she means a tiger nerite.
 
Have you added anything to the tank recently like chemicals? What are the water parameters? (ph, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate)
 
I think it's normal for snails to just hang out sometimes. I know mystery snails do it, I don't really pay attention to our nerite

 

[Ch4rlie]

Sometimes snails will act slow or even look dead at times, i generally just leave them for a day or two and soon they are back to their own normal selfs! 

 

[GuppyGirl20]

Tiger snail is was petco calls them. It's a bit smaller than a quarter.
 
Ninjouzata: I haven't added any chemicals. The only thing I added was the heater and three plants. I don't know my water parameters exactly but I took a water sample to petco just yesterday (because I was having some mystery problem with a guppy) and they said my parameters where all where it was suppose to be.  
 
Ch4rlie: okay. He's been like this for going on three days now but if this is normal for snails I guess I can stop worrying about it him.

 

[Ninjouzata]

Hmm..you may want to pull him out and sniff him. You'll definitely know if it's dead.
 
Do you know what PetCo tested the water with? Liquid test or strips? Did they give you the exact numbers? I recommend getting your own liquid test kit ASAP
 
Have you put in any food for it? Did you rinse the plants?

 

[GuppyGirl20]

Ninjouzata: He's moved just a little bit so he's not dead (yet ). Petco has the strip test and I have my own kit I just took a sample to petco to make sure I was reading the results right.
 
Idk if your familiar with Petco but they have plants that aren't sold out of the tank so they're snail free and all that jazz. And I did rinse the plants off before I put them in the tank. I got the snail to eat the little bit of algae that was forming on my tank. I asked around to see if I needed to keep him those wafer things that sucker fish like to eat since he does suck a good job at keeping the tank clean before stuff can accumulate but everybody said don't worry about it.  

 

[Ninjouzata]

Oh I wasn't concerned about snails getting into the tank, but some plants are treated with chemicals I had heard and so wanted to check if you rinsed them.
 
Glad to hear he's moved! I would give him a bit of algae wafer about twice a week I think. That's what I give mine anyways. The mystery snails get more since they're bigger and I have a few of them.

 

[GuppyGirl20]

Okay I'll look into that, thanks. Now it would be super if my snail would reappear! He was at the tippy top of my tank and I had to take some water out because I wanted to wipe something off real quick (once I find something that bothers I just have to take care of it) so I did that and then replaced what I took out and he was gone. I looked everywhere for him and no sign. The way my hood is set up I can't see under one part so I tried feeling around for him to make sure he wasn't somehow stuck out of the water (I am fairly confident the water line went back to where it was when I put more water in there) and nothing! So if I find him, I'll try the wafer.

 

[Ninjouzata]

Did you check around the outside of your tank? They are escape artists

 

[GuppyGirl20]

I definitely would have seen him on the outside but I was not aware that they would bring themselves out of the water O.O

 

[Ninjouzata]

Yeah. If you ever get a mystery snail they do it too. My fiance found one of mine on the floor covered in dog hair. She was alive thankfully, he just cleaned her off and put her back in the tank.

 

[GuppyGirl20]

Found him! And he's moving around more so that's good. Have no idea where he hid himself at.

 

[betta fish]

nerites generally don't eat prepared foods and need a supply of algae to sustain them, if the algae runs out they will starve, perhaps leave a little smooth stone or something in a glass with water on a sunny window ledge for a bit to get some algae growing on it and then place it in the tank for the snail to graze 

 

[GuppyGirl20]

Betta fish: that's such a good idea! I'm totally going to do that. Just any old stone that I find?