Black Mystery Snail & salt accident

Hello I really need help. I got the Ick in my tank and added the salt like I read and i forgot about my poor snail. I removed it and put it into a different container is there anything else I can do? he looks dead half the time hanging out of his shell and then he goes back in and then looks dead again and some of his tenticles have fallen off? what do I do?! I really don't want it to suffer so should I just kill him and put it out of its pain or wait?!! I heard something about frequent water changes? how often and i don't think it has ate in at least 3 days. It wont eat anything I give it!

First off... Welcome to the forum!

Ug... Snails and salt...

I've got just a little bit of snail experience. But I would say... don't overfeed your snail. Do water changes of 20-30% everyday and maybe raise the temperature slowly a couple of degrees.

Let us know how it does. Good Luck to you!

Welcome to our forum.

Many times when a disease or parasite appears on an aquarium fish, it's already too late to do much. Salt and other medications do work sometimes, but often they are over used. The partial water changes will probably be more helpful. When things are back to normal, weekly partial water changes are about right. Be sure to use a good water conditioner.

What to do about the snail depends on your personality. If it was up to me, I'd give the snail a chance. Probably all that food is polluting the water. Snails and aquarium fish can go for a week or more without eating, and when they're sick they have no appetite. Water quality is more important right now.

i had the same problem. i had ick and fin rot in my tank, and i added ick treatment and salt.

for two days after that, my (golden mystery) snail stay in his shell, just floating around the tank, so i did a 40 percent water change and cleaned the tank the best i could using a gravel vacuum, and then i added in half of a teaspoon of salt back in, and within two hours he was back to normal.and now all of my fish are healthy again.

but i don't think that snails eat fish food and such. i'm pretty sure they eat algae. and other good bacteria growing in the tank. ( if you take a florescent light and hold it to the side of the tank, and then look at the opposite end, there is probably a hair like substance growing on the glass and filter). ive only had him for a few weeks and he has already doubled in size. so i wouldn't worry about his not eating.



i hope i've helped, and good luck!

That's good advice about the water changes. They're usually more effective than any medications. When I had mystery snails, I noticed them eating algae as well as left over frozen brine shrimp.

All of my fish ended up dying and I'm pretty sure my snail is dead too. It hasn't hooked onto the tank in over a week now and the shell is half open and has been floating at the bottom of the container I put it in. today it floated to the top but other than that I don't think it has had any oxygen. Is there anyway to know if it is dead? I have poked it and it does nothing...

I'm very sorry to hear that, what types of fish did you have? It sounds like your snail is dead. Sense all of your fish died too, i don't think that it was from the salt. You should empty the tank a clean the glass and rock/decoration/plastic plants as best as possible, and then cycle it for two weeks. Then you can test the water and if everything is good you can buy more fish and start over fresh.

I bleached out the entire tank including all rocks and plastic plants. I work at a Science Centre and we do that with all of our aquariums and terrariums after our animals die and then just wait a few days for the bleach to evaporate. If it is safe for baby toys it is safe for animals. I was also wondering if you can have a snail without fish in the aquarium? could they still just eat the veggies that you feed it daily? I really liked that snail. I just had goldfish(feeder fish). One of our snakes at my work couldn't eat the bigger feeder fish and they would just die in the dirt so I saved them and took them home haha.

Bleach will kill just about everything in the aquarium, including the beneficial bacteria that make the nitrogen cycle work. If you can get some gravel from a healthy aquarium, it will help restart the nitrogen cycle. Be sure to rinse everything really well, and use a water conditioner that offsets the effects of chlorine.

Oh! that is good advice! thank you, I'll have to get some gravel from my sisters aquarium. How would I make sure all the disease is out of my aquarium without bleaching to keep the good bacteria? just daily water changes?

Also I finally decided my snail was dead today...
so all I have now are my mammals and birds.. any suggestions as to new aquatic life? I was thinking something that isn't a fish but still lives in water..? like my poor snail..

Just about any healthy aquarium will contain inactive diseases and parasites. If the fish are healthy, their immune systems will protect them. They get unhealthy and unable to protect themselves when the aquarium gets dirty or produces harmful chemicals; almost every time, those things are caused by over feeding, over crowding and/or lack of proper maintenance. Regular, partial water changes are necessary because an aquarium is a closed ecological system. If the biological load is not very big, the plants and bacteria in the aquarium can cope with most of the waste materials. Partial water changes are the only way to get rid of all the waste products and dangerous chemicals.

Since you are going to start over, you could add a cup of gravel from the established tank plus the new gravel and some live plants like hornwort and java fern. Before adding fish, check the water once a week for a few weeks to make sure there is no ammonia or nitrite. When conditions are right, add some snails if you want and one pair of inexpensive live bearing fish like guppies or red wag platties. When you add them, use the drip acclimation method. If you've done things right, you should end up with a tank full of fish in six or eight months. Be patient, and let nature do all the work.

I'm glad some of our suggestions have been helpful. Please keep us posted on your aquarium adventures.