HELP! My rabbit snail is not moving as much.

[ScandiDefense]

Guys! HELP!!!! My rabbit snail isn't moving as much. I got him (could be a she) around 10.12.2022 and he was making laps around my tank. Feeding happily and exploring. But for the past 7 days, he has been very inactive. Hiding inside his shell. I moved him to my guppy fry tank as i thought maybe the bigger molly was picking in him. But he is still hiding. He crawled under the sponge filter and hid there. Help!!! Is there anything i can do to help my poor snail?? Any help is very much appreciated! Thanks in advance!

[Lennie]

I feel like rabbits are much more skittish and expects more care than any other snail I've kept so far. 

Can you please write the following in a bit more detail; what you feed him, what is the tank size, water parameters, how hard is your water, ph, temperature, what is your substrate, etc.

Snails usually take some time to settle. When I changed their tanks after quarantine period, I have not observed any behavior change but my water parameters, substrate, etc were all matching the quarantine tank environment.

When I got mine, they were not even eating a noticable amount for the first 2 weeks. @Guppysnail suggested me to let them settle for a while and that worked for me They eat okay rn.

Btw, I saw one guy has his rabbit sleep for 1 week before and he was shocked that he was sleeping that long, so it is possible. 

I would smell test him, hold him gently and see if he performs any reaction when handled. If he smells bad, like in a level that makes you gag, that it sounds like the bad scenario. 

But mine love to sleep during the day and mostly be active during the night time.

Also, believe it or not, I personally observed some of mine were scared of sponge filters. It may sound weird, but that was my experience. Whenever I turned the filter down, the skittish ones were starting to observe outside and move. I know fish are used to hearing sounds under the water so sponges in general are not really a problem, but maybe it is not the case for rabbits? who knows. The others loved to sleep under it, so I don't know really.

Also rabbits can be a lil clumsy and sometimes may get stuck. Make sure he is not stuck :') It is hard to carry that shell around.

And you may be right. Mollies can be bullies, and sometimes if rabbits get damaged once they were out, they can be super skittish in a level they never go out even to eat again. Sadly, one of my rabbits came with a damaged antenna, assuming it was a nip from a fish in lfs, they were shipped to me. It was so skittish and never went outside even in only snails tank. So I ended up losing him sadly

 

 

 

 

Edited January 21, 2023 by Lennie

[ScandiDefense]

Thank you so much for the detailed reply!!! Very very much appreciated!!!

For the first 3 weeks, he was really active. He can be see touring round my tank all day long. And i can even hear him at night because he will climb the sides of my tank then drop down. I will hear clicking sounds. And i will now he is making his rounds in the tank. I am a beginner and i don't have any test kit for ph and water parameter. 

I sniffed him a bit just now. No off putting smell. He hid back inside his shell the moment i touched his shell.

Food - Fish shop guy told me feed him the same fish pellet that i am feeding my fishes. So basically he is feeding on leftover fish pellet, leaves from my Egeria Densa 

Tank size - 15 gallon

Water temperature - I live in Malaysia (tropical country)

Substrate- Bare bottom tank

Water hardness - Soft

Water parameters & PH - No idea as i don't have any kit

When i placed him in my micro small tank (guppy and molly fry), even those little fries are nipping at him. Would it be better if i place him with my orandas? My orandas are also in a 15 gallon bare bottom tank.

 

 

[Lennie]

Okay, so there is stuff that are going wrong for a rabbit for sure.

First things first, fish food is not enough for snails like rabbits or mysteries, more than that, not even a main source of food. Your lfs guy was wrong, sadly.

You can provide some algae wafers from time to time. But you need to offer lots of blanched high calcium veggies to them. You can give them green beans, peas, broccoli, spinach(sometimes), collard greens, pumpkin, zucchini, carrots, sweet potato, etc. If it is something that can be peeled, play safe and peel the veggies. Make sure stuff you get are organic and does not contain any pesticides, salts or additive. Clean them good, put them in a boiling water for a min or so, mybe a bit longer for harder stuff like carrot or pumpkin, it helps them to sink.

You can also prepare some "snello" at home and offer it to your snail. You can easily find snello recipes on youtube. You can also check this recipe; https://floridamysterysnails.com/2018/05/30/how-to-make-snello-snail-jello/ 

This is gonna be a great option for a healthy diet.

It is generally a mixture of calcium content(I use powdered egg shells), fish food (I mix omega1 freshwater flakes, hikari crab cuisine, and NLS Algaemax), veggie mixture from the abovementioned ones, and a binder (some use unflavored gelatin, I use agar agar as I'm vegan, your choice). Gelatin and agar-agar have different type of way to activate as a binding agent, and cannot be substituted with  1:1 ratio. So check the link above for agar-agar, and video below for gelatin use :).

You can also get some hikari crab cuisine as it contains nice amount of protein and calcium. But again, not an everyday food.

They need calcium both in their diet and in the water column. You can keep a piece of cuttlebone(bird section, no flavors or vitamins etc, just natural cuttlebone, no other ingredients). I clean the outer shell and boil it for it to sink and make sure it is not salty. Taste it on the tip😄You can also use eggshells, there are lots of videos about it too, but definitely no soap whatsoever. I've seen some people washing it with soap. Never do that please.

You need to keep your snails in a cycled tank (ofcourse), with ph preferably minimum 7 and nothing below, and preferably in a hard water. In case your water is soft, or ph is lower than 7, their shell will start being erosed which can reach lethal level. Same goes for lack of minerals especially calcium.

Also you need to keep them in warmer water, the minimum I've heard of them doing okay was 24 with my friend's experience. I keep them at 26-27.

Nipping situation in every tank seems to be not ideal at all. You may want to either give him a new tank or consider rehoming. He might end up scaring to open and suddenly die.

Also they like burying, and sifting through the sand/non-sharp sand-like substrate. Mine loved the clay based substrate (mine is JBL Manado). They won't do well on a bare bottom tank as they cant perform their most basic sifting and sleeping action by burying.

They breed slowly in tanks, so yours can be a wild caught one. If is the matter of wild caught fish/snails w/e, they are mostly very restrictive with the natural and habitat conditions. Therefore you need to keep it within the desired conditions and water parameters for it to survive, not even to have an ideal life.

So please make more research, search for snello recipes, get lots of veggies, and if you can't get test kits, considering the nipping action going on, I think rehoming might be a good idea.

cheers,

You can find lots of snello recipes on her channel as well. Sharing a video for an idea;

 

 

Edited January 21, 2023 by Lennie

[ScandiDefense]

Thank you so much for the detailed info. Yeah i think rehoming is the most viable option as i am not equipped to care for him.