Eyes have been eaten off? :'(

[Evil Angel]

Just as I solve one issue another arises!

I have 2 baby retics, which are in a tank of their own until they are big enough to join my larger retics, and normally they are fine and active and quite frankly, seemed to be doing extremly well.

However, when I checked on them both this morning one of them had lost both its eyes!

I think maybe the other retic has eaten them off?

They were fine yesterday, I just dont understand why this has happened?

I have watched him for a couple of hours and an sure they have gone as in those hours his eye stalks have not grown as they usually would, there are just these black stubs on his head where his eyes should be

What should I do? Can he live without eyes? Or should I put him to sleep?

Please help... I'm really worried about him

[Evil Angel]

I am really worried... I placed him on top of some food, and he is just laying there out of his shell he's alive but he doesnt look good at all

[pinkunicorn]

SLost eyes normally grow back. I'd suggest separate her for now and monitor her. Give a variety of foods to choose from, especially favourite foods to tempt her to eat. Also good quality fish food for extra protein to help the eye grow back.

Could you post a picture of her so we get a better view on the situation? That would help to give more specified advice.

Or him... for some reason I read her. Not that it matters tecnically.

[Evil Angel]

I put him on some food as I do every morning, and at first he stretched out and was acting normal, apart from the fact he only had black stumps instead of eye stalks, so I then put him in a tank of his own away from they other retic as know they can eat ill snails, so thought it must have been eaten by the other one...

Anyway, he was still on the food and gave him a light mist of water and some of his favoured food, but he didnt move, he looked really weak all of a sudden and was just laying on top of the food, as if he didnt have the strength to draw himself back in.. I left him alone then as I didnt know what to do, I read that an eye stalk and be grown back but wasnt sure if he could survive until then with both of them gone...

I checked on him this morning and he is still as I left him last night and I'm sure he is dead
I just dont understand why as he was fine before this...

I'm quite upset at the moment, but at least he isnt suffering anymore

[swub]

So sorry to hear that x

[pinkunicorn]

If he's not moved at all last night then he most likely slept away. I'm sorry.

It makes me think that perhaps his eyes were not eaten but simply had no strenght to put them out. I've seen this happen with my slugs when they die: they might seem normal in the evening but then they slow down and don't put out their eyes anymore, so they look like stumps. Then they die within the day. I just had a very old (for his species) slug pass away yesterday displaying what I described here. It died of old age, but it sounds like your snail was displaying the same "symptoms". It's always hard to know what is wrong with gastropods as we know so little of their illnesses, but it's safe to assume they have health problems equivalent to what humans are known to have.

[Evil Angel]

Yes it could've been that he was to weak... I just assumed they'd been eaten as at first he was moving round his tank like nothing was wrong expect his eyes, so didnt look to be weak at all, until I moved him on to the food anyway...

Poor little guy was only about 1cm so was still just a baby, but I had gotten quite attached to him.

Am a bit worried about the other one, she seems completely fine, but then so did my other one...
Fingers crossed it was just something genetically wrong with him and that the other one will be ok!

[saki114]

poor snail... RIP


snails eyes are not as important as to us. dont get me wrong; they are still sort of imortant the eyes only sense light and dark, their feelers tentacled things sense pretty much everything else.