What happened to my snail?

[toadie]

I left for a couple of days this last weekend and when I got back home, my mystery snail was nowhere to be found - Well, his shell and trapdoor were on the bottom of the tank, but there is no body. I'm thinking that the (I think they are leopard - about 2" long and spotted) plecos committed murder and destroyed the evidence by eating him.

Is this plausible?

Should I be worried about my other fish? I haven't seen the plecos going after any of the fish - a bit aggressive with the cories when I first drop any pellets or algae wafers in, but they settle down as soon as they find out there's enough for everyone.

Now the Harlequin rasboras and black skirt tetras are acting skitish - not as eager to eat; hiding more in the corners or plants. (I lost a neon tetra to NTD a couple of weeks ago, but otherwise all fish have been and still look quite healthy)

Tank stats:
pH 8.0 - normally it is 7.5, but has been inching evermore alkaline since I added some sandy beaches for the cories. (Is this a reasonable explanation for the increase? tap water pH is between 7.0 and 7.5 How do I bring the pH back into the 7.0 range?)
Nitrite, nitrate, and ammonia all consistently within very low, safe limits.

 

[WILDER]

Ntd can wipe a whole tank out if the fish died in the tank, so we need to no if the neon died in the tank.

 

[toadie]

Ntd can wipe a whole tank out if the fish died in the tank, so we need to no if the neon died in the tank.

[snapback]905713[/snapback]​

No, I euthanized the neon.

 

[Inchworm]

Nitrite, nitrate, and ammonia all consistently within very low, safe limits.

Hi toadie

It's pretty hard for any fish to kill a big snail. I suspect that he probably died, and once his trap door relaxed and opened, the fish just ate him.

I'm going to move your thread to the Invertebrates and Amphibians section where someone who know more about snails might see it and respond, but I did want to comment on your tank stats first.

There are no "low and safe" readings for ammonia and nitrite. The only safe readings for them is 0. If anything higher shows up, it's urgent that you take steps to correct the problem. If you don't, you are apt to have problems, not just now, but in the future.

 

[xamdarb]

i had a water dragon in a tank with a snail in his water and he ripped the snail out of his shell and ate him haha sounds like the same thing but yourfish did it instead of a lizard