Mystery Snail (Mantle Collapse?)

[Aldyrin]

My Mystery snail has been kind of lethargic lately.  Some floating at the top,  He was on a mission to eat all the algae ever since I got him, but now I don't really see him move.  I just notice he is in a different spot every once in a while.  Not sure if he is repositioning on his own or not.  I poked his shell a bit earlier today (when he was at the bottom of the tank) and it seemed like he retracted a bit.  He is floating now this evening (when I took the pictures).  

I'm a little worried he may have "Mantle Collapse" from some reading online, but I was hoping someone else could take a look at the pictures and let me know what they think.  Sorry, I'm not sure why one of them is upside down.  I can't fix it for some reason.  The snail is floating with the shell pointing up.

I'm pretty new to the hobby... My 20g high tank is around 3 months old now, I think.  It is planted and everyone is pretty healthy except for the snail.  I have a Nerite snail in the same tank which has always been pretty lazy seemingly, but he is still kicking, seems like.

He also I tested the water and the only thing that some could consider to be out of range would be the nitrates, which were at 20ppm.  I've done a couple 30% water changes since then over a few days, and got the nitrates down to 10ppm.  Somewhat of an aside: I'm hesitant to do big water changes since it can cause big pH swings for me.  Out of the tap, my water is close to 7, but if I let it sit in a bowl for a few days it climbs to 8-8.2, which is where my tank sits most of the time.

Here's the parameters I have on hand.  I haven't tested my KH/GH in a while, but last time I did they came up very hard.

• pH: 8.2
• Nitrates: 10ppm
• Hardness: Very hard
• Nitrite: 0
• Ammonia: 0
• KH/Buffer: Very hard
• Water Temperature: 76F 

I've never tested for copper.  I have some shrimp in this same tank that seem fine.

Suggestions?  Is this just normal and I should leave the poor snail alone?

 

 

 

Edited June 2, 2021 by Aldyrin

[NeoNerd]

Hi Aldyrin, what temperature do you run your tank? When is the last time you saw the snail eating on something - piece of zucchini/algae wafer/etc that you put in there specifically for your mystery snail? In my experience, it is easy to not feed these guys enough, so could be a reason for the lethargic behavior. 

[Aldyrin]

Temp is about 77F.

I've never really gotten it to eat something I put in the tank on purpose.  He's always on the glass pretty much.  I have algae wafers.  Should I put one in and then put him right on it or something?  My livebearers seem to go after the algae wafers pretty quickly.

I could get some zucchini I guess but I read somewhere that it wasn't really nutritious.

There's lots of algae for him to eat on the glass at the moment.

[Aldyrin]

I've actually just scaled back the feeding a bit (from once a day to once every other day) to try to control the nitrate levels a bit.  Also about to put some more plants in the tank for similar reasons.

[Guppysnail]

Steamed, blanched fresh green beans or NO SALT ADDED canned green beans. Mystery snails go nuts for them. If your nitrates are over 40 they will display like that. Also if there is ammonia or nitrite or water is too soft lacking minerals and calcium. Wonder shells do wonders for them. They also become less active if they are alone.