# Apple Snails playing dead. or about to roll 7's?



## Mac Myers

Hello,
I have a question RE: Mystery/Apple Snails.
Twice now (couple of weeks apart and in different tanks) I have found a snail upside down sticking a little ways out of the shell. Stays that way for hours (even days) until I pick him up. Then he retracts. So I put him of a leaf with the top of the shell exposed and a few hours later when I check he's gone and is moving around the tank again. *J/D*

Suspecting this isn't good.
PH is 7.8-8.0
Ammonia=0
Nitrites=0
Nitrates=20ppm
GH/GK off the chart. *y2


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## jrman83

Any creature can adjust to your ph. All your readings look good. Not sure how your GH/KH affect snails, but I'm guessing they should be able to adjust to that as well.


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## Mac Myers

Yeah... I have 6 or 7.... they have all been fine except for 1 back and one ivory or whatever they call them. They both did the upside down thing. Neither have perished.*question


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## James0816

Briggs like to take what I consider "breaks" from time to time. If they poke out of the shell a little bit, it's normal. Even if they stay closed for a day. When it's time to be concerned if they stay closed up for several days without moving at all. 

Do you find they do this much after a water change?


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## snail

Can apple snails get stuck on their backs?


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## James0816

I've seen them get stuck before. If I notice them on their backsides for a prolonged period of time, I'll help them out and roll them over a bit.


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## snail

I was thinking maybe the snails are getting stuck on their backs.


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## Mac Myers

I honestly don't know.
The Ivory Apple did roll 7's a day ago. I checked him and he was getting a bit ripe. The other one was crawling around but is on his back again this AM.


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## James0816

Well poo! I just recently lost a couple of mine as well.


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## Mac Myers

I had 7. 4 have since passed on. I've been slowly (or so I thought) reducing the GH/KH in the tank. Guess I messed that up. *Conf*


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## chris oe

Sometimes bridgesii can be extremely fussy about water quality, usually when mine start behaving oddly (doing this sort of sluggish suspended animation thing) I take it as a sign that I need a big old partial water change. Nitrate could be an issue, but it could also be something weird, like did somebody in the house repaint one of the rooms, did somebody have something on their hands when they reached into the tank, has there been a slow build up of some metal or other trace that we don't usually test for over time. I know I can be bad about partial water changes because I know my biofilter is bullet proof after all these years, but even with the tank packed with plants, the nitrate creeps up and I know the brigs don't like it, and the aquarium is such a closed system any little inconsequential thing can get concentrated over time. When I do that water change, everybody perks up, so I figure it has to be something like that. 
Another thing that seems to act like a tonic is canned spinach. Usually I feed algae wafers, but everybody, the brigs, the plecos, the brochises, everybody goes wild for it, but the brigs especially turn into speed demon snails when they smell it in the water. Could just be they like it, but it does seem to make 'em happy.


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## tropicalworld

Mac Myers said:


> Hello,
> I have a question RE: Mystery/Apple Snails.
> Twice now (couple of weeks apart and in different tanks) I have found a snail upside down sticking a little ways out of the shell. Stays that way for hours (even days) until I pick him up. Then he retracts. So I put him of a leaf with the top of the shell exposed and a few hours later when I check he's gone and is moving around the tank again. *J/D*
> 
> Suspecting this isn't good.
> PH is 7.8-8.0
> Ammonia=0
> Nitrites=0
> Nitrates=20ppm
> GH/GK off the chart. *y2


Wish we could find some way to get rid of the apple snails. They are devestaing our plant life in our waterways here in South Florida. My beautiful bog has been destroyed with thousands of them eating most vegetation. Water lilies do not last the night


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## chris oe

Sorry to hear that, Tropicalworld. That'll be the P. Canalculata, which are little terrors and should never have been in the aquarium trade to begin with imho. the P. Bridgesii (or diffusa, I guess is the new species name) only eat dead vegetation & dead debris and will actually starve in a planted tank, so they're safe, in that they are much less likely to become damaging to an ecosystem the way the canas have been. The canalculatas are illegal to sell now, and everybody seems to be having no trouble sticking with the program, except Walmart who for some reason occasionally will have some cannas mixed in with their Brigs. If you find somebody selling Canalculatas you can report them, the whole stock can be seized and impounded while they investigate. The biggest problem is people who release animals they no longer want into the wild instead of destroying them, bringing them back to the pet store, or finding them a new home. There really ought to be a law that stores that sell animals must be required to accept them back, maybe not for a refund, but just on a "here, you take it" basis. That would keep pet stores from selling animals that grow too big for home aquariums, and animals that are trouble as they get older, like Chinese Algae Eaters. It would also probably take a bite out of the puppy mill biz, if they had to take back all the animals they sold that later had health issues or other problems.


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## Lil Gashog

I looked at my mystery snail on the side of the tank when i was watchin tv,i turned back and he was riding the current on the water surface floating,so i put him at the bottom thinking he was dead,be hes fine.Maybe he has amnesia


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