Why is my snail doing this?

[spoondigity]

Hi,

 

I have a 10 gallon tank with live rock in it. My tank has been cycling for around 3 weeks. Diatoms were appearing around the 2nd week. I went ahead and put 3 astrea snails in the tank and 1 hermit. They all seemed to be fine, each of them eating off of the live rocks. Now, one of the snails has climbed the glass and worked his way around the tank under the lip. He eventually crawled into the outflow of my millenium 1000 filter. He is just sitting where the water runs out. Is there any way to know what he is trying to do or if this is just normal snail activity? The others seem to be doing fine still and acting as I would expect (eating off of the rocks). There is no shortage of brown diatoms and the water has been in acceptable parameters.

 

Thanks for the help,

 

Andy

 

P.S. I also have a Prizm skimmer running on the tank for water cycling and waste removal.

[Gilman]

My snails do this at times as well. (Astrea and Stomatella both) I have actually found an Astrea snail on top of our Nano Reef before where it had used the HOB filter to get out. Thankfully this has only happened once (so far). I don't think there is anything to worry about with your snail, and I'll bet your snail will move when it gets hungry or decides it doesn't like the waterfall anymore.

 

Gil

[spoondigity]

Thanks for the peace of mind. I was a bit worried but I guess the little guy knows what is best for himself. I have the top pretty well sealed and taped the top of the filter down so he won't be able to actually enter the filter. I haven't put a fish in and I am already spending 10 minutes at a time just staring at the snails and crab LOL.

[anthony812]

i have a turbo that loves to cling onto the rotating head of my Zoomed power sweeper 224...its so funny watching him swaying back and forth when the head sweeps..his tenticles flying all over the place due to current..it seems like he treats it as a poller coaster ride..hahah...

its fine..snails can have odd behaviors at times but no harms

[Sahin]

Some of my Astreas sometimes do that. I see one climbing onto the output of the Prizm skimmer, well above the tanks waterline. Maybe getting a good wash? hehehe

 

They are strange. I doubt theres anything wrong.

[spoondigity]

Well you guys put my mind at ease. I gave up worrying about him and you were right. He seems to be my most active snail. I find him on every potential surface of the tank at any given time. Now one of my other snails kind of has me worried. This other one is a little larger and initially spent his time roaming a live rock eating from it. He fell on his back at some point after I had added a new PH and I would say I found him and flipped him over within an hour of him falling. Now he just sits in the place I put him on the bottom all day (this is where a lot of diatoms seem to be so maybe he just set up a camp at the buffet). He hasn't moved more than half an inch from where I flipped him over for around 5 days now. Everytime I think he must be dead I go to pick him up and the little guy is still kicking so I assume he is good to go. After reading all of your posts I have decided not to worry about odd snail behavior. I will check him every so many days to make sure he hasn't kicked the bucket, but snails just seem to do these kinds of things.

[BustytheSnowMaam]

Hi,

 

I was told that sometimes snails like to go up along the water line because there is a higher mineral concentration there (whether that is true or not, I don't know, but it's plausible). Also, in the wild, snails are exposed when the tide goes out, so I guess they do like to be out of the water sometimes.

Tasha

[fliberdygibits]

In my larger home tank, I have one large Turbo (bout 1.5 inches diameter) and a smaller (.5 inch) turbo. Many times I will catch the smaller one riding the larger one around, once for nearly 2 days before he finally got off. Snails are goofy.

 

 

 

P.S. - Oh, I DO have more than just 2 snails just so you know:)

[gobies]

Yeah, one of my little roundish snails likes to ride around on the other snails. I can tell it's the same one due to its shell pattern. It was riding around on the turbo snail for about three days one time. It hasn't tried riding around on the crabs yet.