Top heavy snail?

[craig45]

Recently added a few Margarita snails and every few days I find one or more on its back. I gently flip them back over rightside up, and in a few minutes they get underway. Is this normal, would they eventally right themselves?

Craig

 

[Oceans Ferevh]

Snails fall over if another critter knocks them off or if they try to climb on something unstable.

 

[zonkers]

Some snails most definitely will not be able to right themselves. Turbos & Astraeas mostly, from what I'm aware of. Its from their squat, conical shape, they are unable to get a good grip beneth them to right themselves. I read an article once where one aquarist let them be after they fell over, but they'd eventually starve to death. I've lost a few myself because they've fallen off in the back & I never realized they were in distress

On the flipside (*boo!*), I have also had some snails that I could swear were giving up on life. I'd find it dropped off a rock & upsidedown, & I would right it, maybe even place it back on a rock (I mostly right them & leave them on the substrate now because of this), only to find it upsidedown again the next day, or maybe only even a few hours.

I don't think this should be confused, though, with snails that go 'dormant'. I had a Red Footed Conch that I could've sworn was dead (right side up on the substrate, but not moving for several days), but it turned out it was making a baby-- & I really don't know how exactly this could work out, but it was the only one of this type in the tank in particular, & one day I noticed it trucking around again. Then I took a small piece of rock from this tank to put in my QT, & find a juvenile on it. Asexual reproduction? Who knows? (beside the happily grinning snail )

So I guess my 2 cents is, if its upsidedown, & doesn't smell like rotten eggs, turn it over. Good luck...

Pete

 

[romunov]

The snails that can't upright themselves come from different habitat. Where they live there's always a stone or another object to get a foot hold. They have not evolved to deal with sand. On top of everything, most of these snails come from temperate water and are not reef suited.

 

[Jolieve]

I would also read more about margarita snails before attempting to keep them. Dr. Shimek recently published an article that identified these snails as coming from the cooler waters in the pacific off California and noted in the article that they often die in aquarists tanks after a month or so because tropical settings are too much for them.

To that end, I'll add that I keep my tank at 80 degrees, and I have never been able to keep these snails alive for more than a month or two. After that, they seem to disappear. I do better with other, known tropical species of snails, have some ceriths that have lived for two years, along with some large nassarius, trochus, and turbos.

J.