Mystery snail possibly death? Help.

I set up my mom with a 30 gallon tank, it has three 50 cent piece sized angels, one 3/4" bristlenose pleco, and 3 dime sized white mystery snails. We put a new filter on the tank and it got a slight algae bloom to it but not bad. She did a little more than 30% water change and treated with tap water conditioner for being within the city. The snails have been in the same spot and half open in their shells for 3 days now. They all three did this before the water change. I have had them do this in my tank for a day or so before and it seems as if they are sleeping and then come back to and go around the tank again. This hasn't been the case with hers. I am baffled because there is nothing wrong with any of the fish in the tank. Does anyone know what could possibly cause this? I'm pretty sure they are dead at this point. 3 days is a little much with no movement.

What are the water params - Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrates, PH, GH, KH ?  All of these are important when snails are involved.  They need a higher PH (7.5+) and a decent dGH and dKH (8 range on both is good) Do you use Flourish Excel at all?  I've found the stuff deadly for mystery snails.

The large water change likely wasn't a problem unless you didn't use enough water conditioner, or didn't use something that can also neutralize heavy metals and you happen to have source awful water (beyond just chlorine).  I do regular 50% water changes on my mystery snail tank and I use Prime without issue.

Mystery snails are tricky business... anyone who says otherwise is just lucky, I think.

Oh man I guess I've been lucky. The tank is bare bottom as well I guess I should have added that and has weighted fake plants and decorations. She has a bad back and fibromyalgia so I wanted her to be able to enjoy a tank and have the least amount of care with it as possible. So no Flourish Excel. I guess I have been lucky since my snail die off has been old or just mated snails. I'm unsure of the params, she doesn't have a test kit there. I know she was feeding the snails ken's premium veggie sticks with calcium that I gave her. I feed these to mine as well without any problems and from the same bag/batch. We use either Stress Coat or Tetra Aqua Safe Plus to our tanks. I supply her with both and use both of these in my tanks as well without any issues.

I've had more success with mystery snails after boosting the GH and KH of my water artificially. But I've still had some atrits, even after that. All my tanks are heavily planted and theirs is no exception. I also feed veggie sticks with CA, along with other Ken's foods and the occasional bit of homemade snail-o.

Without data on the water params it's going to be difficult to suggest any possible remedy.

Okay, we were more concerned about the fish possibly being at risk. But they all seem to be doing fine.

I've had a good number of mystery snails die with no negative affects on shrimp or fish in the same tank, so I wouldn't necessarily worry about them just yet. That said, it could be they're acting as the canary in the coal mine, so to speak.

pbmax wrote:I've had a good number of mystery snails die with no negative affects on shrimp or fish in the same tank, so I wouldn't necessarily worry about them just yet.  That said, it could be they're acting as the canary in the coal mine, so to speak.

Yeah, that's kind of what we were wondering about.

My mom just sent me a message and said that one snail has moved and is crawling all over the tank now. Other two do not have any movement yet.

i agree with pbmax, mystery snails in particular seem to require more specific parameters than some other snails, i have had the two i tried to keep die within a couple months of getting them. i have also had them start doing what you are describing, and once that started happening, they weren't long for this world. i don't know at all what it means as far as specifically why they are doing it, but i assume that they are in some way not feeling well. i think our water around here is just too soft for most snails, like pb said you can add products to increase hardness if you really want to keep snails.

Okay this started the end of April, one snail died, not sure as a result of a hungry pleco or if pleco did his job after death took over. End result, empty shell. The 2 other snails have been laying in the same exact spots for 2 weeks, not moving. I know from my own snail when they die within a day or so they will start to mold/fungus and I remove them. These NEVER got mold/fungus so I advised my mom to leave them in there since that hadn't happened. Flash forward to yesterday. Mom woke up and both snails are zooming around the tank like nothing has been wrong. WTH?!    How freaking random! I don't understand how they could be immobile for weeks and all of the sudden be crawling around. My mom is uber observant to be able to tell they had not moved at all, so now we are both VERY confused.

The test for mystery snail death is to poke in between their trapdoor and their shell, if their trapdoor is ajar, so to speak. If they suck in their trapdoor, then they're still kicking. If their trapdoor is shut tight then they're definitely still alive.

I hope yours continue to recover from their funk!

That's what I do to mine They have been sitting with their trapdoor ajar. But apparently they are zooming around now lol.