Sick Snail?

EricDP · Sep 10, 2025

About 10 days ago I brought home a few nassarius snails. The other two did what they do... buried in the sand until I fed some frozen mysis shrimp, then erupted and started searching for food. This one just stayed buried. I think it was coming up during the night, because the siphon would be in different places in the morning, but it was definitely the shy one. Earlier today, I noticed it up and slowly climbing the glass. After several hours of slow climbing, it's now sitting right at the top with what looks like mucus hanging off of it. Is this thing dying or do they just do this?

Video of Odd Snail

kingranch2003 · Sep 10, 2025

EricDP said:
About 10 days ago I brought home a few nassarius snails. The other two did what they do... buried in the sand until I fed some frozen mysis shrimp, then erupted and started searching for food. This one just stayed buried. I think it was coming up during the night, because the siphon would be in different places in the morning, but it was definitely the shy one. Earlier today, I noticed it up and slowly climbing the glass. After several hours of slow climbing, it's now sitting right at the top with what looks like mucus hanging off of it. Is this thing dying or do they just do this?

Video of Odd Snail

I will say the "string" looks odd, but my nassarius do REALLY weird things when they lay eggs. They usually climb to new heights! (Pun intended, sorry). Sometimes the snail will be up there for a couple days before it lays its eggs. Im not saying that's what is going on, but it could be. My nass-ty crew lays

lots of eggs. Here's a pic of some eggs one of the ladies made into the shape of a palm tree on my front glass.

EricDP · Sep 10, 2025

Looks like the snail left some of the mucus behind, and a friendly trochus snail had snuggled up to clean the mess... hopefully this is a good thing.

My main worry is this is in a 5 gallon quarantine with five other snails (three trochus, three nassarius). If a snail that size dies in 5 gallons, it will kill everything else pretty fast...

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