Helena Posted September 10 Share Posted September 10 Hello! I just came back from vacation and my sister did a water change a week ago but forgot to plug back in the filter. So there was no filter going for 6 days but I did have a bubbler. All my fish seem fine and accounted for but my mystery snail is deep retracted. She does not smell but I've never seen her this far into her shell. How do I tell if she's hibernating or dead? Water parameters: nitrate: 40ppm Nitrite: 0ppm Ammonia: .25ppm I did a 40% water change yesterday and plan to do another 40% today with a gravel vac but I don't want to crash my cycle. I added extra prime to detoxify the ammonia but I am not sure what else I can do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pepere Posted September 10 Share Posted September 10 At 0.25 ppm ammonia I would just be keeping an eye on it… an probably reduce feeding… My tap water is chronically 1 ppm Ammonia so when I do a tp% water change the ammonia in the tank gets to 0.50 ppm. Typically metabolizes away in 8-10 hours… 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurt Brutting Posted September 11 Share Posted September 11 Smell is the best indicator if your snail is dead. I swore I had dead snails before and the next day they were on the move again looking for food. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helena Posted September 11 Author Share Posted September 11 Thank you! I'll let her be and keep bringing her out for the smell test. I'm going to use RO water for my water changes since my tap has a fair amount of ammonia in it. I really hope she's just hibernating Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FishyGirl Posted September 11 Share Posted September 11 My mystery snails ( I have 9) will suck way up into their shells, I used to freak and be like OMG they are dead but then in a couple days they’re out again. Hope this helps. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllFishNoBrakes Posted September 11 Share Posted September 11 If it is dead, you’ll know by the smell test for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pepere Posted September 11 Share Posted September 11 On 9/10/2023 at 9:26 PM, Helena said: I'm going to use RO water for my water changes since my tap has a fair amount of ammonia in it. Are you remineralizing the RODI water to add back Calcium, Magnesium and some Carbonates? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennie Posted September 11 Share Posted September 11 If I gotta be honest, I have soo many mysteries but I havent seen any going this deep. The shell dmg is already a sign of you are keeping them in a low ph environment as you can see the patches of shell erosion. The shell growth on the other hand looks to be thin to me. It does not look strong and healthy. What do you feed your mystery snail? What's your gh, ph and kh? Temp? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helena Posted September 13 Author Share Posted September 13 Unfortunately she passed away. I am not sure what my gh and kh are but my ph is 7.2. When I do water changes I do 3 parts RO water and 2 parts tap. I fertilize my water every 3 days with easy green 3 pumps of easy green, two pumps of easy iron (both aquarium co-op), half a cap of seachem potassium, 1/3rd a cap of seachem phosphorus, and some prime when using tap water. For food I alternate between frozen bloodworms, frozen baby brine shrimp, hikari sinking wafers/algae wafers, viformo sinking tablets, and blanched zucchini. I have a 20 gallon with 6 panda cories, 5 zebra danios, 4 kuhli loaches, and 1 Columbian zebra pleco with a lot of red root floaters, Anubis, and Christmas tree moss. I have had my Mystery Snail for 9 months and it wasn't until before I went on vacation that she laid her first (and I guess last RIP) clutch so I thought she was doing good. In the future is there anything else I can do better to prevent this from happening? On 9/11/2023 at 3:03 AM, Lennie said: If I gotta be honest, I have soo many mysteries but I havent seen any going this deep. The shell dmg is already a sign of you are keeping them in a low ph environment as you can see the patches of shell erosion. The shell growth on the other hand looks to be thin to me. It does not look strong and healthy. What do you feed your mystery snail? What's your gh, ph and kh? Temp? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pepere Posted September 13 Share Posted September 13 Without knowing what your tap waters GH and KH are, how did you arrive at a choice of using 3 parts ro to 2 parts tap water? It might be an excellent ratio lowering the GH and KH of your tap water to better parameters, but how do you know? GH, KH test kit is around $11.00 and will last a long time before being used up… https://www.aquariumcoop.com/collections/water-care/products/api-gh-kh-test-kit-combo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennie Posted September 13 Share Posted September 13 On 9/13/2023 at 5:35 AM, Helena said: Unfortunately she passed away. I am not sure what my gh and kh are but my ph is 7.2. When I do water changes I do 3 parts RO water and 2 parts tap. I fertilize my water every 3 days with easy green 3 pumps of easy green, two pumps of easy iron (both aquarium co-op), half a cap of seachem potassium, 1/3rd a cap of seachem phosphorus, and some prime when using tap water. For food I alternate between frozen bloodworms, frozen baby brine shrimp, hikari sinking wafers/algae wafers, viformo sinking tablets, and blanched zucchini. I have a 20 gallon with 6 panda cories, 5 zebra danios, 4 kuhli loaches, and 1 Columbian zebra pleco with a lot of red root floaters, Anubis, and Christmas tree moss. I have had my Mystery Snail for 9 months and it wasn't until before I went on vacation that she laid her first (and I guess last RIP) clutch so I thought she was doing good. In the future is there anything else I can do better to prevent this from happening? Sorry for your loss. To explain your question, I can share Lav's video on them. It is very well explained and she basically mentions almost everything I would type here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helena Posted September 13 Author Share Posted September 13 Thank you for your help! I use 3 parts RO and 2 parts tap because that is what the fish store recommended since we do not have any added minerals to our RO unit. So the tap is used to balance it out. I'll buy a test kit and start narrowing down my kh and gh. I appreciate the advice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pepere Posted September 13 Share Posted September 13 Your fish store could be entirely spot on knowing what local tap water is like… I was just curious how you came up with that plan of action. to my mind though having the test kit is well worth the money. it will allow you adjust as the tank matures, evaporation happens, planys and invertebrates take up calcium etc… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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