I think my snail is a murderous psychopath..

[taira]

This has been going on for 10 months now.. So I'm wondering, can a snail actually suffocate another, and even more so, on purpose? Or something like that?

Sounds weird and apologies for the long post but I want to explain as clearly as possible because I really have no idea what, or why, is happening with all of Adrian's "roommates" anymore.

So I have one snail and he's solo most of the time. Occasionally if I find another, I'd take it, bring it home, keep it in a separate enclosure for the first day or two to check if it's ok and all and when I see it's stabilised, rehydrated and fully alive and healthy, I move it in the "big house" with Adrian. At first, it's your typical a snail meets a snail cute situations, both fully lively and eating normally etc. Then in another couple of days or so strange stuff starts happening. More and more often whenever I check on them, I find Adrian completely crawled over the other one but not the shell that much, somehow always mostly over the body itself-like. Numerous times also if the other is retracted in its shell, Adrian is somehow entirely over the body side. And.. in few days, I find the other one dead. Always. Foot tip out, very barely or completely unresponsive, and then fully gone. The first time I dismissed it as just that I've sadly found a very old snail or for some other natural reason it just didn't make it. Couldn't be from me because I take extremely good care of them so it cant be from hunger or dehydration, bad substrate or air, or something like that.

What's making me very suspicious now is, so far this scenario has happened NINE times. Always Adrian more and more crawling stubbornly on them and their heads, then finding the other dead or dying and Adrian going on about his business as if nothing ever happened fully alive and happy. Only two times the partners actually lived more than a week. Sometimes I literally have to manually unglue Adrian from the the other because it obviously can't come out to eat or something. They are always the same specie and, no, it's not mating. I've seen them do that, never bother them and give them their privacy and all, and although it looks similar it's obvious it's an entirely different thing he does the rest of the time. Can't be from love darts either (I've seen and would be obvious if it was from that, as I've read sometimes snails can get lethally shot but thankfully that's one incident I haven't had yet), or after laying eggs because I never found any immediate eggs and also, always it's only the other one and Adrian fine and peachy. I'm also never finding any injury or, idk, attempt of Adrian eating the other one, nothing. And I don't think all those times I got very old snails right before dying, that's impossible, even with my terrible luck lol.

So even after I actually put a camera and did "surveillance" for nearly 24 hours, and watched it (ohdear..even at x5.. lol) this is the only explanation I can think of - for whatever freak of nature reason, it just looks like he just.. crawls on them blocking their breathing holes and.. like chokes them. Not fighting or anything, just staying there. Why does he always do that? Whether on purpose or not, I just can't figure it out. A snail to suffocate another? Can that even happen? ..

So what the bloody hell is going on. Is my snail some murderous rapist psychopath or something? The occasional piggyba.."piggyshell" rides are ok, mating is fine, the usual passing one over the other.. those are normal things. No matter what I read about behaviour however, this particular situation that's happening doesn't feel normal to me. Penny for your thoughts, anyone?

[SuspiciousBagel]

Hi taira,
Thats.. so bizarre! I've heard of predatory snails eating tankmates, of course, but generally, they won't go for a snail of the same species. But you said Adrian isn't eating them either, and you didn't mention him being predatory.
I'm completely baffled by Adrian's behavior. Snails don't really have the intelligence to intentionally cause harm, but consistently doing the same thing and then the snails dying is definitely strange. The only thing I can really think of is perhaps Adrian could have some kind of disease that he's resistant to but kills other snails? Though it wouldn't explain the strange behaviour. Also, are you entirely sure he's not feeding on them? If snails are deprived of protein sometimes they will go for other snails near them. But you said you've never seen an injury on them so I find him eating them unlikely. I have no idea. For now, though, I'd say no more tankmates for Adrian haha. Hope you figure out whats going on!

[GailTheSnail]

Woah this is WILD! I thought I’d seen and heard everything but this is a new one! I’ve raised easily over a thousand snails and I’ve never once had one that appeared to murder others (I have had a few incidents where I believe one caused another’s death but it never seemed malicious and it never happened twice with the same one).

Three questions: what type of snail is Adrian? What type of snails are you bringing in to live with Adrian? Can you please share some pictures so we can get a better idea of what’s happening?

I consider myself to be very in-tune with snails and would be curious to get a better look at this situation!

[Bogs]

Thats bizarre. What species are they? Like susbagel said, snails dont really have the intelligence or competence for malice, let alone murder. But this does NOT feel like a coincidence. Maybe its accidental and Adrian is trying to do something else, maybe mate with or just check the other out and accidentally smothers them. I think you should probably keep him in a tank by himself, solitary confinement for serial manslaughter (snailslaughter?) but yeah i wouldnt recommend sending more to their deaths lol. truly bizarre case! good luck!