Post by coyote on Jun 30, 2009 4:45:13 GMT
A friend of mine has apple snails with a problem and needs some advice.
She says:
I have three of these awesome little creatures (a baby about one centimeter tall, a teenager about one cm and a half, and a young adult of about 3 cm) and I've run into a problem. Worst part is that I can't seem to find any decent information as to what might be causing it. A search on google shows that a lot of people have this issue, but no really good answers out there as to why.
Over the last two days, they've started acting weird: they are largely inactive and mostly on their backs. These guys are amphibian, so the water pH should not have much of an effect on them since they can breathe from the top of the tank all the time if they wish to hang out there. They don't stay at the top though, they're on the bottom upside down with the opening to their shells ajar. When I first saw them like this I thought they were dead.
Just in case the pH is an issue, I moved them from the slightly acidic tank to the Beta tank which is slightly alkaline. They're still on their backs.
There's plenty of food in the tank and the water quality is fine. The fish are healthy and without problems.
None of the snails are old, obviously, so this is not an age related problem. I don't get it. And I'm concerned. I don't know what to do. The aquarium store people are clueless and they usually just want me to buy their products to add to what is a perfectly sound environment for our fishies.
Can anyone help?
She says:
I have three of these awesome little creatures (a baby about one centimeter tall, a teenager about one cm and a half, and a young adult of about 3 cm) and I've run into a problem. Worst part is that I can't seem to find any decent information as to what might be causing it. A search on google shows that a lot of people have this issue, but no really good answers out there as to why.
Over the last two days, they've started acting weird: they are largely inactive and mostly on their backs. These guys are amphibian, so the water pH should not have much of an effect on them since they can breathe from the top of the tank all the time if they wish to hang out there. They don't stay at the top though, they're on the bottom upside down with the opening to their shells ajar. When I first saw them like this I thought they were dead.
Just in case the pH is an issue, I moved them from the slightly acidic tank to the Beta tank which is slightly alkaline. They're still on their backs.
There's plenty of food in the tank and the water quality is fine. The fish are healthy and without problems.None of the snails are old, obviously, so this is not an age related problem. I don't get it. And I'm concerned. I don't know what to do. The aquarium store people are clueless and they usually just want me to buy their products to add to what is a perfectly sound environment for our fishies.
Can anyone help?
They breath air via a sort of scuba tube that they extend to the surface, pump themselves full and then go back down. it's not uncommon for them to push out a bubble or two if you startle them into retracting quickly - they're quite able to get rid of any extra.