Astraea went missing ... but left its shell!

[BrunoL]

Hey all,

I've set up a new tank (log in my signature) 2 months ago. I had 5 Astraea snails, which seem to do great on the live rock, but appear to hate the sand. Every now and then one falls of so every now and then I place them back.

I noticed one hadn't moved much but they're usually calmer during the day. When I did some cleaning and my weekly water change yesterday I noticed it had a funky spot on the shell. I picked it up and the shell was empty. The shell almost looks like its been scratched or scraped against something. The shell itself has no odor or anything. I checked ammonia and nitrite, both came back at 0.

I figured that, if the snail had dropped its shell I'd be having one roam around homeless, I don't. Water values came in fine as well, no ammonia spikes which I should be seeing if I had a snail rotting away somewhere. Everything else in the tank is fine as well. The other snails, both nassarius and astraea, are happily trucking around.

So the big question is, where did the snail go to, and what's the damage on the shell from? Is it possible it was eaten by a bristle worm, I did see one crawl around the rockwork. Or did it otherwise die and did the CUC empty out the shell? At the time of this happening I only had clownfish in the tank, no other fish.

 

[tzabor10]

Unfortunately, invertebrates have a life of their own. Sometimes long, sometimes short. It is painful to have a loss, but keep your head up

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

astrea snails do a good job, but they are a pain because if they fall they can't right themselves and they end up dying if you don't notice and help. And when they die they disappear very fast.

 

[BrunoL]

Thanks for the support! I'm less bummed about the snail, but more curious as to where it went ...