My Golden Apple Snail died... why?

Question

I had a golden apple snail for about 6 or 7 months I believe. he seemed to be doing quite well for a while and he was growing steadily.

I installed a filter in my goldfish aquarium a few weeks before he died. My apple snail seemed to become lethargic a little while after the installation. It seemed to me like he ate far less as well...

Could he have been having nutrition problems? I wasn't able to get my hands on some algae tablets... which seemed okay because he liked to eat cucumbers anyways and he ate all the fish poo and climbed around making sure my aquarium was always crystal clear...

I really enjoyed him and now the aquarium seems less interesting without him. he was definitely the star of the show for my husband and I.

does anyone have any advice on apple snails? I'd like to try again but I don't want anything bad to happen again. I've read they can live 10 years.

Haha I guess he wasn't eating the poo after all then! I live in a fairly new house on a military base so the pipes in the house shouldn't be copper. I haven't added any salt into my tank for the goldies, but that is very interesting to hear.

I'm going to have to take another look at the water reports tho because something funny was going on with our water and they say it was remedied recently.

My poor snail, he was VERY dead.... very very very... dead. :( I thought he may have gone in a hibernation like phase to conserve energy since he hadn't been eating alot... but then a few dayd later I had to see him poking out all fluffy like... not a really pretty sight... I was afraid to even take him out and thought maybe I should wait and ask my husband to do it... aside from sad... it was really alarming and gross.

Answer 1

It sounds like it could have been a nutrition problem. They do need a varied diet that includes fresh veggies and algae, but they don't eat the fish poo.

You also mention installing a new filter on the tank. This could have upset the ammonia cycle enough to have killed him.

MM

Answer 2

Are you sure he was dead? Sometimes the larger snails will draw back into their shells for quite a long time. The only time you can be sure they are dead is when you take them out of the water and the trap door is hanging loosely.

Goldfish are known to do better with salt in their water, did you start adding salt to help your goldfish. Snails are very sensitive to salt and too much will kill them.

MM is right, there are no scavengers in the fish world that "eat poo", some of them sort through it to find edible pieces of undigested food, but none actually eat poo. Some of the larger snails actually make a bigger poo mess than the fish in the same tank.

Answer 3

Sounds like normal behavior for a snail until you said clouds of mucous? Sounds like he is dying, it could be some sort of defense mechanism but, I think it is dying try touching it again if the shell closes up again he is alive and I would probably get all the salt out that you can in fresh water that is more used for a remedy or cure rather then just putting it in for no reason little shouldn't hurt and your mollies are probably used to it and the snail just may have got shocked by it. Hope this might have helped you

Answer 4

I agree with what the guy above me said only copper is not the only metal present in water that can harm them... and the addition of the algae would have somewhat neutralized the effects of the heavy mental in the water...

Buy a water filtration system that takes care of metals...

Answer 5

Your apple snail could have died just from old age. In an aquarium at 25C (77F) they have an expected life span of about 12-16 months.

Answer 6

there could have been copper in the water, which is bad for inverts. Old pipes tend to have copper in them