Post by hel on May 12, 2022 19:11:17 GMT
First time making a post here but I'm a bit stumped and in desperate need of advice.
It's a bit of a long story, but I got my first GAL about 2-3 years ago and they were doing great for a long time - I've been able to problem-solve for myself with various different issues, ranging from fungus gnats to heating troubles, but I started having real issues after I brought in a second snail. I noticed that the older snail was getting less active and eating less, and eventually they stopped eating all together, then they changed colour (got darker) and went into deep retraction. During this time period the younger snail was absolutely fine.
Eventually the older snail died, and I got a new baby snail to join the other snail in the tank, but I could never figure out what happened to the older snail as the other was doing absolutely fine.
Now history seems to be repeating itself in a way, and I think I have a potential culprit. I noticed a few weeks ago that the older of my two current snails became less active, and I haven't seen them eat. They're still coming out occassionally on their own and seem very awake when I do find them in the tank (they're not hard to wake, and they do explore a fair bit once I wake them up) but it's reminding me a lot about how it started with the other snail. The baby snail is doing great and growing fast. The older of the two also laid a small clutch of eggs a bit over a week ago now (and I have been giving them a wellness mix and extra cuttlefish + oyster grit but, again, have yet to see them eat it). When looking them over after they laid eggs, I saw two mites (not springtails - I have a nice colony of those going and know what they look like) crawling out from their breathing hole (sorry can't remember the term for it). I took action just in case by tossing about 80% of the soil so it's pretty much just the surface layer and adding a ton of hypoaspis mites. I'd also noticed what I suspected to be potworms in the soil, but they seem to be in decline now that the hypoaspis mites are in the tank.
However, today when I picked up the older snail, I noticed thin, white strings in their faeces. On closer inspection, the white strings were dried out, and there were also thin, very long and almost translucent, white strings that even with some rough handling kept their shape and didn't pull apart. I suspect they're worms, and I've offered both pumpkin seeds and a deworming mix to the snail, but even mixing it with the tastiest treats I can find they still don't seem to want to eat it.
I'm really stumped on what to do, and I was hoping there might be a way to boost up my snail's appetite so I can get a dewormer in them.
TL/DR: Snail probably has worms, doesn't want to eat so can't give dewormer.
