# Snails Beware!



## SkinniMini (Mar 26, 2006)

Tonight I have had my second casualty occur from a mystery snail getting caught up in the intake tube of an AquaClear HOB filter.
Mike (my fiancée) was the one to see Chester, my big mystery snail as soon as we got home from work-he was the first one in the room, getting on the computer which is next to the tank & happened to see him sucked up in the vents at the bottom of the tube. He was barely alive at the time, I unplugged the filter & was able to help him free himself without pulling on him, but it doesn’t look good. He was battered & probably exhausted-who knows how long he was stuck in there! I put him on the dwarf sag in hopes that he would have a place to recover, but my hopes for him are pretty dim & I am crushed.
He is one of my favorites, an active member of my little mixed community. I used to like to watch him slowly move around the tank. To me, he just looked so bizarre, it was kind of like watching a being from another world.
Some may think, oh, it’s just a snail. Well maybe so, but he’s so cool, & I am heartbroken. 
I was thinking of forming a cone from thin stainless steel mesh & pushing it down inside to the end of the tube to protect against such things happening again, but if anyone has a better idea, please let me know!
(thanks for listening!)


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## Philip C (Jan 1, 2007)

It might not look pretty, but you can get a foam block from your LFS and put the intake down in the middle of it. I'm sure this would be effective way of keeping any live thing out.
Philip


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

Sorry to hear about your snail, I'm hoping for the best. A sponge from a pre-filter works well to keep shrimp, fish and snails out of the intake.


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## Cassie (May 27, 2006)

I had a similar scare yesterday...one of my brigs climbed out of my desktop tank! I found him with a chipped shell and fairly dry, but I put him back in, and, despite my fears, he made it! I hope your snail does too!


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## nswhite (Aug 25, 2006)

Oh that sucks. I've only used the sponge on the filter, if you dont care about slowing down the gph a little bit.


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## Ankit (Dec 9, 2006)

Try putting a filter media bag over the intake of the filter like *John N.* did in his shrimp tank - http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...512-my-29-gallon-colossus-shrimp-farm-11.html


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## Musket (Jun 7, 2006)

How is your snail doing? They are quite resiliant. Give a little Melafix and pimafix to the tank. Be sure not to overdose. Did his shell get damaged or his foot?


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## SkinniMini (Mar 26, 2006)

Thanks for the suggestions The media bag idea brought to mind something that I know we have at work that was included with a bunch of other samples-I don't know what it is, but when i get it home & if it works, I'll find out & let everyone know. But for now I'm going to look for something like that, that will work.
Chester is a hurting unit, but he is alive.
When we got home from work today, he was in the same place, & this weird white thing I'd never seen before was hanging out, we didn't know what it was, but I'd gotten to the point where I was ready to look up something I'd seen here about humane euthanasia but something stopped me. I _couldn't_ do it, even though he seemed so miserable!!
I put him in a bucket with water left from yesterday from when I had to clean out my filter to get it to restart-there was mulm settled on the bottom, I do this in hopes that it'll make him want to eat? (please forgive my ignorance on this, I'm just going with guesses) So I go out & do some things, & then later decide to return him to the tank for one last try. I put him on the gravel & put his favorite pellet right where he could get it, & eventually he began to eat.(he wasn't able to do this yesterday) My philosophy is if you can get a sick being to eat on it's own, half the battle is won. 
It didn't take him long, he is up & around, working his way up the glass now, with one antennae mostly gone, & the other one mangled a little.
Poor little guy!


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## crataegus (Nov 16, 2006)

*P. bridgesii and media bags*

The media bag didn't work as well for my snails. Larry stayed off the bag (he probably didn't like the feel of it), but Gary gut "stuck" once. I bought one of the bulk pads at the Mega-LPS and attached that with a rubber band. Neither of the bridgesii get on the intake now.

When I move them to the larger tank, I'm going to set up a cage around the filter and heater that will double as a moss wall raised up on stones. At least, that's what I'm planning. The paludarium idea didn't pan out since I found myself with zebra danio fry when I started to put the tank together.


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## BiscayneBoulevard (Nov 18, 2006)

Your description of Chester eating his little pellet and crawling up the glass with missing and mangled antennae was heart warming. He's not just a snail at all! I know exactly how you feel. People think I am ridiculous over my fish too.

I hope he is feeling better! I think they are pretty resilient. Years ago when I was quite young I had a mystery snail, and the poor guy fell from the tank, and then was jammed against the wall, and his shell was partially crushed. But he made it and went on to lay some lovely eggs for us.

Good luck with Chester!


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## pepperonihead (Nov 25, 2004)

*I lost two just the other day and I am bummed*

I had only one and I liked him so much I got another one. Mine were either mystery or Apple or what ever they are and they were a really cool burgandy color! The other day I put the hot Magnum filter on the tank to polish my water and about three hours later I noticed both of the snails cought in the uptake of the filter. I got them out and one was already dead and the other went away and I havn't seen him since. I am sure he died too. I really liked these guys. They are one of the coolest creatures to watch and I wanted to get more. I cannot find them any where now and I miss them!!!


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