Weirdly shaped shell on mystery snail

[PonyPlantedTanks]

Hello -

Ive had this teeny tiny blue mystery snail in my 29g for about a week now. I’ve only kept nerite snails before, but he’s been doing great - super active, munching on all the algae, etc. But I noticed that he has this weird “back plate” thing going on. I’m wondering if this is normal for mysteries. 

It appears to be part of his shell.

Edited Saturday at 08:39 PM by PonyPlantedTanks

[MWilk]

It’s either horribly deformed or that’s its operculum, which is part of the foot, not the shell. 

[clownbaby]

On 10/19/2024 at 1:38 PM, PonyPlantedTanks said:

Hello -

Ive had this teeny tiny blue mystery snail in my 29g for about a week now. I’ve only kept nerite snails before, but he’s been doing great - super active, munching on all the algae, etc. But I noticed that he has this weird “back plate” thing going on. I’m wondering if this is normal for mysteries. 

It appears to be part of his shell.

pick him up and tickle his foot. This will cause him to retract into his shell, and then you will be able to tell if that is his operculum (basically like a "door" that hides their face when they retreat into their shell) or if it really is his shell.

[PonyPlantedTanks]

Here’s a picture of when he was in the bag from the LFS. He stayed retracted for quite a while. The clear part is what I am talking about, so it’s probably not part of his foot.

I’m realizing that he looks really strange in this picture😂At the beginning I legit thought he was dead - he’s fine now!

Edited Saturday at 11:40 PM by PonyPlantedTanks