this icon now less ironic than usual

[rivendellrose]

Well, shit. I almost certainly have a dead snail, now. Last time I checked, snails were not in the habit of sort of slumping partway out of their shell and not moving or reacting when something (like a goldfish) bumps them.

Hell.

I haven't done anything with him because I was sort of afraid that I'd... I don't know, get rid of him and then find out that he wasn't really dead or something. So he's still in the tank at home, which I hope does not mean the fish will nibble on him, because that might not be healthy (I don't know how he died - snail old age? snail sickness?), but... that'll be something 'fun' to deal with tonight when I get home, I guess. Unless he's miraculously closed up or started moving around. Poor little guy.

At least the fish seem fine... but damn it, I was really fond of that snail.

Comments

[websandwhiskers.livejournal.com]

Aw, I'm sorry. I have no idea how you determine death in a snail.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Yeah, me either... I know they're tougher than they look in a lot of ways, but beyond that, not much beyond basic biology. *Sigh* I guess it'll be another run to the fish store tonight...

[thegranddewru.livejournal.com]

:( I'm sorry. Poor guy. Is is possible there is copper of any kind in your water? I know copper kills snails. He does seem too big to be killed by trace amounts though.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Copper is one thing we didn't test for, but I have a hard time imagining there'd be anything in the tank that would have it... the only thing I can think of that I'm not sure would be 100% safe would be the glaze on the ceramic pot I put in for a cave. I figured it was safer than the painted polystyrene stuff they sell at the pet store, but if the glaze had copper in it... oh, I don't know.

Poor little guy. I keep hoping I'll get home and he'll be bopping around the rocks like he was the first day, but it's just not looking likely.

[thegranddewru.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there can be all kinds of hidden stuff on or in those things that can get into the water. I think sometimes you can test them by soaking them and then testing the water, but that's why they say use stuff made for the aquarium. I used to be really into my aquarium until my heater exploded and killed all the fish. Now I just have a few and keep it really low maintenance.

I hope so too. I hope he's fine and he was just pulling your leg. *crosses fingers*

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I totally feel your pain on the heater thing. That was the last straw for our tropical tank when I was growing up... We had a power outage that killed some of the fish (2 weeks without power, so the water cooled down and killed the delicate breeds), and then a power surge when the power came back on fried the heater's controls and it overheated, and ended up overheating the rest before we noticed it was broken. Very sad.

Yeah, it'd be really nice to go home and find him tooling around like he did the first day. He was so energetic and fun to watch!

[amberdiceless.livejournal.com]

Aww, poor snail. :( Hopefully you can find another you'll like, but definitely test for copper first! If you just got him, though, it's possible he was in poor health to begin with, or maybe he just didn't like the change from the pet store's water to yours.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Yeeeeeah. At this point, I might as well get a whole home chemistry set, for all the water testing I'm going to be doing every time something in the tank goes weird. :/

[narsilion.livejournal.com]

Oh Hon, I'm so sorry. I hope you're wrong and when you get home he's fine. Poor little guy.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Yeah... He really wasn't looking good, though. I'm betting it's too late, but... *Crosses fingers*

[jfrog78.livejournal.com]

Also if you are unsure you can take him back and have them look at him. Also back in the day with my 25 gallon tank if the new occupants died a few days after purchase the pet store would often replace. Although I don't know the pet store policies you went to so....

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I did a little research online over lunch, and from what I've seen it looks like I'll know if he's dead... apparently snails start to smell pretty fast. So... that'll be fun. Or something. >_>

If there's still any doubt, yeah, I'll find a way of taking him over to the shop. Good thing it's close.

They probably will give me a new one, since I just bought him the other day, but I want to make sure I've eliminated the possibility that something in the tank killed him, first. The last thing I need is to kill off another snail.