SNAIL DYING? HELP PLEASE

[orchid]

Help! I was holding my garden snail and he was acting slower than normal and limp? like I picked him up by the shell (was scared and wanted to put him back in cage, i know it’s not good to do that) and he was like slack??? his antennas were also very weak and limp. is he dying? he also just fell over on his side. he also seems to have occasional snail mites and i’m trying to get rid of them. he also climbed to the top of his cage at only 6 pm which is unusual for him. please help i only got his last month so i don’t know what to do. ignore bad grammar please i’m typing this fast.

TLDR- snail is very weak and acting weird. is he dying

[orchid]

i gave him banana for the first time and he seems to be eating it. i’m very worried

[orchid]

was it the temperature in my house?? normally it’s pretty cold but ok in my house and we got home and the heater malfunctioned and it was hot. what if something happened from that. will he be ok? i’m sorry for freaking out, i’m scared

[morningcoffee]

None of this sounds like anything to worry about from your description (apart from the mites), especially if he's eating. Snails often become a little "floppy" when picked up suddenly because the surface they were sticking to is suddenly taken away and they have nothing to grip on.
The house temperature getting warm shouldn't be a problem unless the tank is placed next to a heater. If it is, then move it away ASAP.

Here is a video that shows harmful snail mites (Riccardoella):
www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-cd7GG2mEM
As you can see they are very small, white-ish, slightly round in shape, move very fast and are on the body and going in and out of the breathing hole.
If the mites you've been seeing don't look or behave like this then they are unlikely to be harmful mites and may be something like springtails which are harmless to snails.

[orchid]

Jan 25, 2020 8:57:08 GMT morningcoffee said:

None of this sounds like anything to worry about from your description (apart from the mites), especially if he's eating. Snails often become a little "floppy" when picked up suddenly because the surface they were sticking to is suddenly taken away and they have nothing to grip on.
The house temperature getting warm shouldn't be a problem unless the tank is placed next to a heater. If it is, then move it away ASAP.

Here is a video that shows harmful snail mites (Riccardoella):
www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-cd7GG2mEM
As you can see they are very small, white-ish, slightly round in shape, move very fast and are on the body and going in and out of the breathing hole.
If the mites you've been seeing don't look or behave like this then they are unlikely to be harmful mites and may be something like springtails which are harmless to snails.

hi! thank you for responding! still a little worried because he is still slower and weaker seeming than normal but it must be the mites because that is the mites he has (the ones in the video). i don’t know how to get rid of them. what if i cleared out his cage and got new everything and cleaned the snail completely so there would be no mites? would the eggs still be on the snail?

[orchid]

Jan 25, 2020 8:57:08 GMT morningcoffee said:

None of this sounds like anything to worry about from your description (apart from the mites), especially if he's eating. Snails often become a little "floppy" when picked up suddenly because the surface they were sticking to is suddenly taken away and they have nothing to grip on.
The house temperature getting warm shouldn't be a problem unless the tank is placed next to a heater. If it is, then move it away ASAP.

Here is a video that shows harmful snail mites (Riccardoella):
www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-cd7GG2mEM
As you can see they are very small, white-ish, slightly round in shape, move very fast and are on the body and going in and out of the breathing hole.
If the mites you've been seeing don't look or behave like this then they are unlikely to be harmful mites and may be something like springtails which are harmless to snails.

hi! thank you for responding! still a little worried because he is still slower and weaker seeming than normal but it must be the mites because that is the mites he has (the ones in the video). i don’t know how to get rid of them. what if i cleared out his cage and got new everything and cleaned the snail completely so there would be no mites? would the eggs still be on the snail?

[orchid]

sorry for posting this twice! didn’t mean to

[orchid]

and what i meant by “slack” was like kinda how a worm looks when it’s dying? if that makes any sense at all? like he just looked abnormal and it scared me.

[morningcoffee]

Jan 26, 2020 3:58:11 GMT orchid said:

hi! thank you for responding! still a little worried because he is still slower and weaker seeming than normal but it must be the mites because that is the mites he has (the ones in the video). i don’t know how to get rid of them. what if i cleared out his cage and got new everything and cleaned the snail completely so there would be no mites? would the eggs still be on the snail?

That would definitely be a good start, but unfortunately the mites can hide inside the breathing hole as you can see in that video so it's almost impossible to get rid of all of them that way. The only surefire way is to introduce predatory mites (Hypoaspis miles) into the tank which will hunt and eat the Riccardoella mites, then die off when there's no food source left. You can buy them online in various places but sometimes they won't send them out during winter.

For now definitely do a thorough cleaning, use very hot water for the tank and any ornaments/tank items. You can run the tap/faucet (lukewarm water only!!) and gently wash the snail under it to try and remove any visible mites. Make sure he has some nutritious food like sweet potato available when the tank is clean too.

[orchid]

thank you so so so much! i will definitely do that