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Shelldon's getting old now, I think - I've had him for maybe a year and a half. For about the past day or so, he's been floating at the top of the tank he shares with my zebra danios. Normally I'd just let things be, because he's done it before and eventually de-air bubbled himself and settled back down, except that in this case he floats over to where the filter hood on my tank is pouring out clean water, and the force of the water will shove him towards the bottom. He'll float to the top, and it begins again. Over and over!

I decided to put him in his own little space (I also have a zebra danio who is lately mildly aggressive to anything near the surface of the water - fish or snail alike - and I didn't want Shelldon to get picked on if he can't snail around on the walls of the aquarium), so I found my 1 gal (maybe more?) fishbowl and put a floating fake plant in it so he'll have something to cling to. He's not dead, just unable to do anything but float parallel to the surface of the water.

I'm worried that this might be because he's getting older, and perhaps his shell is starting to calcify from the inside out because he doesn't seem to be able to retract all the way back into his shell anymore.

I've tried gently rotating him belly-up, in the hopes that maybe some of the air will pop out. It's worked before, but in this case even after a few bubbles came out he was still floating, which leads me to believe that he's got air trapped in the top of his shell somewhere.

Whew! that's a lot of babble on my part Thoughts? Opinions? The 1 gallon fishbowl is only a temporary solution, and he's got to go back in the big tank sometime...I just thought he could use a break from the filter if he's going to do any more floating around. I'm not a snail doctor, so I have no idea if this is temporary or not. Help me out, guys

did you try looking at [link=applesnail.net]http://applesnail.net" style="COLOR: #ff0044[/link]?? it doesn't sound like your snail is doing anything out of the ordinary to me, but you might be able to find a much better answer over there.

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"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman

It's normal. I believe they think it's fun.

Kim

Gastropods are not intelligent enough to have a sense of self. Therefore, I doubt the above claim.

Kim

Well my snail thought it was fun to walk over the air wand and let it shove her up to the top of the tank. Then she'd sail down onto a cave and walk over to the bubbles again. She probably did that for 2-3hours everyday. I think that's what finally caused her death. She had grooves in her shell from the bubbles escaping and she crashed into the cave a few times coming down. I've also got one that likes to float around in the rivertank and get shoved all over with the current. Lucky there's not much to run into in there. 1 1/2 years is old age for a snail in a tropical tank.

Floating is not a sign of poor health-it is a natural tendency.

I've never witnessed a snail unable to expel air from their lung. So, I doubt that's the case. Their lungs can collapse, so they can't inhale, but exhaling is pretty simple.

Snail will float for a variety of reasons. I do belive snails find it "fun" (anthropomorphic, I know...) to play in bubbles and float around in currents. I see mine all the time raise up one side of their shell, to catch a bubble, float up, around and back to where they started, just to do it again, and again. With antennas flying the whole time.

But, snails will also try to catch a current out of their environment when conditions become poor. So, you may want to check your parameters just to make sure everything is okay.

If you have a bridgessi, they don't live very long. Usually around a year. So, it could be getting old. Floating plants were a good idea, as it may not have the strength to climb for air.