Help with snail shell please

[felix93]

Right I have got this baby Fulica, which his shell is growing kinda funny. I don't now how to describe it, but if you check out the pics, you might be able to work out what I am saying. He still has the growth in his shell, but if you see there is a little bit attach to his new growth shell. It is a pretty thin fine layer. He is very active right now, eating and slimying around with no problems. I don't think he has damaged his shell from falling because the tank he is in has no hard objects in there except cuttlefish of course. And he has about 2 inches thick moss at the bottom of the tank. He is just acting like normal. So what can I do to make his shell kind of growing back a bit better? (I don't usually pick him up at all because he shell is very thin and delicate)

[Paul]

That sounds normal to me. New shell starts out as an incredibly thin, transparent layer. Is that what you mean?

[felix93]

Yes Paul, but if you look at the pic, it is the middle part of the shell.

The snail in the pic is lying down side way, so in the middle of his shell, there is a thin layer growing but it has been days that looks like that. So he is growing his shell not at the edge of the shell but in the middle of the shell. *Oh it is so hard to describe!*

[sonicsnail]

That looks to me like the soft new layer of shell has come off all together! It also looks like the mantle is protruding and the broken piece of shell has been put back on, but does not fit as the mantle now protrudes.

[sezzy5889]

I can see what you mean, it looks kind of weird, is it too late to brake it off?

[felix93]

How can I break it off? I don't want to kill him. Will he be able to grow his shell back to normal or even kinda normal?

When I check properly last night, he has some new growth around the other side where the shell is growing, but I just need to fix the middle part. But how, I don't know.

[sezzy5889]

thats why i was asking, if you broke it off does he have enough shell to live in if that bit was broken off?

[sonicsnail]

It already looks like it's broken off to me...

[felix93]

Sarah, I think he might just have enough to cover himself up. But then will his shell be small if it is to the proportion? I have not tried anything like breaking off the shell, you know I am a beginner. So if I leave that, will he have 2 shells LOL.

Sonic, it only has 2 layers, not breaking off (not yet anyway). It has a thin layer attached to each layers if you know what I mean. I think that thin layer looks slightly thick, but I cannot be 100% sure.

[sonicsnail]

Ok...Still don't know what you mean... In the picture there is a gap between most of the shell and the new thin piece. There is a white area in this gap...What is that then? That's what I thought was the mantle and that the piece of shells has already been broken off and then placed back on or something.

[sezzy5889]

he will be able to grow the shell back if it's broken off, if he doesn't seem to be suffering then you dont' even have to do anything if you don't want.

[felix93]

sonicsnail said:

Ok...Still don't know what you mean... In the picture there is a gap between most of the shell and the new thin piece. There is a white area in this gap...What is that then? That's what I thought was the mantle and that the piece of shells has already been broken off and then placed back on or something.

Right you know the white bit in the gap, that is a think lay of shell (I think it is anyway), so that means, the shell underneath is is attached to the top layer of the shell. I think the snail trying to repair the shell, and creats tat new layer (the white part)...please say you know what I mean now?!

Thanks Sarah, I will see how it goes. It does not look he is suffering or anything, he is a little b*gger that like to use other snails as a climbing post, he is up all hours slimying around in the tank. So may be i just leave him until there is a problem with his shell.

[sonicsnail]

I see what you mean now... However, I still don't think the white area is shell. It seems to stick out too much, so if it is shell that means that it is sticking out 90 degrees to the main body shell. It seems that the thin layer of shell is resting on top of the white area (the mantle and not shell in my opinion). I also believe that it is not shell for that area is white, why would the shell growth be white? So what you think is a think layer of shell, in my opinion is the mantle, with the thin layer of shell broken off and resting on top of it.

Can you get any more pics, close ups of that area?

[felix93]

I am going to feed all my snails at around 9pm, so I will try to take more pics. it is pretty hard to take pics of such small snail. If the pics are no good tonight, I will try to take some in the day time, better lighting might help.

Thanks again.

[sonicsnail]

No problem, I'm just concerned that if it's not shell then it is the snail's insides and if that much has broken off and is just resting there, then there could be a problem. If he seems fine at the mo just leave him and try to get some more pics... From experience, this has happened to me. Once a snail broke of a part of the thin layer of shell, quite a bit actually. I'm not sure how he did it. The broken off piece of shell was actually just resting on top of the snail's insides that were protruding out. The snail in your pics seems to be like what happened to mine. Well, my snail survived, but he struggled. He is still alive today and this happened some time ago.

[Deleted]

snails can cope with considerable damage from the edge of the shell. hopefully the snail will be fine

[felix93]

The baby snail is fine, he is very active and slimying around all the time at all hours. He's eating fine too. I am just worrying about his shell while he probably does not really care. In fact I think he has grown.

My digi cam battery needs to be charged as I just realised it has no battery, so I will take some better pics whenever I can.