Why did my snail die?

Sharkbait19 · Oct 5, 2020

Hi,
About a week ago I bought a peppermint shrimp and a margarita snail. I drip acclimated them for twenty minutes then put them in. The shrimp went in easily. The snail, on the other hand, took some prying off the container wall to get into the tank. After going in, he went around the tank a bit, then stayed in a spot. A week later, he was in the same spot. Nothing was eating him, but he just sat there. Yesterday I decided to flip him over so I could observe him better. This morning, it’s just a shell. Clearly, he died and disintegrated, which would explain my recent ammonia spike to 0.5 ppm. I did a water change (which i had to do anyway for my new corals I just bought).
My question- why would he suddenly die like that? Everything else is doing fine. Is it my fault? I feel guilty for buying it just to kill it!

BiGGiePauls33 · Oct 5, 2020

Sharkbait19 said:
Hi,
About a week ago I bought a peppermint shrimp and a margarita snail. I drip acclimated them for twenty minutes then put them in. The shrimp went in easily. The snail, on the other hand, took some prying off the container wall to get into the tank. After going in, he went around the tank a bit, then stayed in a spot. A week later, he was in the same spot. Nothing was eating him, but he just sat there. Yesterday I decided to flip him over so I could observe him better. This morning, it’s just a shell. Clearly, he died and disintegrated, which would explain my recent ammonia spike to 0.5 ppm. I did a water change (which i had to do anyway for my new corals I just bought).
My question- why would he suddenly die like that? Everything else is doing fine. Is it my fault? I feel guilty for buying it just to kill it!

Animals die the same way that people do. Could've been end of life for the snail, who know how old the snail was?

afishbestservedcold · Oct 5, 2020

Could the peppermint shrimp have killed him? what else do you have, any hermits or crabs? my pom pom killed a trochus

Sharkbait19 · Oct 6, 2020

afishbestservedcold said:
Could the peppermint shrimp have killed him? what else do you have, any hermits or crabs? my pom pom killed a trochus

Idk, when observing him though he just stopped in one place and sat there untouched. Maybe I acclimated him poorly?

afishbestservedcold · Oct 6, 2020

Sharkbait19 said:
Idk, when observing him though he just stopped in one place and sat there untouched. Maybe I acclimated him poorly?

I'm pretty new but the saltwater snails have been generally hit or miss so far for me, the ones that make it do great but about 1/4 dont seem to want to keep going. So far Astreas have been the best -haven't lost any- but they do move a lot slower than other species

Sharkbait19 · Oct 6, 2020

afishbestservedcold said:
I'm pretty new but the saltwater snails have been generally hit or miss so far for me, the ones that make it do great but about 1/4 dont seem to want to keep going. So far Astreas have been the best -haven't lost any- but they do move a lot slower than other species

My survivors are a cerith, turbo, astrea, and some hitchhiker I found, probably a nassarius