One of the most complicated things about keeping aquarium snails is detecting when they are sick.
As a snail keeper without the appropriate knowledge of being able to find out when your snail is sick will lead to huge losses and probably depression on your side.
Knowing when your Snails are sick is one of the most important skills you must learn about keeping aquarium snails so, that you will always take action before your snails die.
Related: 3 signs that shows your Turbo Snail is dead
If you want to learn about the signs to look out for in snails to be able to detect when things are not okay, then read this article to the end.
How do I know if my Snail is sick? When Snails become sick, their level of movement and activities will be limited drastically, and they might stop eating.
These are the most common ways to detect if something is wrong with a snail.
Although it could be very tough to detect if a snail is sick or not, especially snails like Apple and Mystery snails because they base their activities at night and are barely active in the daytime.
If you suspect that your aquarium snail is not totally okay, then you have to watch it and find out if something is wrong.
Related: Can Aquarium Snails get Ich?
Common ways to find out if your snail is sick:
1. If it stops eating:
One popular thing about aquarium Snails of any type is, that they eat like pigs. I mean they eat a lot and could eat a lot of things too.
It is very unusual for Snails not to eat foods, especially their favorite ones.
So, if you suspect your snails of being sick, then place their favorite food or foods in the tank and leave it for a day and see how well he goes with the foods.
If the food remains intact, then it didn’t eat them, which means there must be something wrong that might require the advice or service of a Vet.
2. Sluggish/Dullness:
The most common method of detecting if something is wrong is watching the activities of your Snails.
Apart from snails, sick animals don’t feel very lively and are not very active.
If your snail is behaving very dully, unlike it before, then there must be something wrong with it.
Although they are nocturnal and don’t do much in the daytime, so you can keep watch at night and monitor their movements and activities.
3. Visible Disease Symptoms:
There are some diseases that could show very boldly, and you don’t even need to monitor them.
Such diseases may affect the physical body of the snail making, you see the effects in them. Such diseases include shell rot, bacteria attacks, etc.
Related: 4 possible reasons why your Aquarium Snails are dying
Sometimes you can see signs such as some microorganisms inside their shell etc.
When you see such, you don’t need any physician to tell you that the Snail is sick and needs good medical services and help.
These are some of the ways to know when your aquarium snail is sick.
How Do I Tell If My Snail Is Healthy
I have explained the techniques to know a sick aquarium snail, you may also like to know the signs that show if a snail is healthy.
How do I tell if my snail is healthy? A healthy snail will be very active and will eat a lot, including climbing the tank and eating algae.
Identifying healthy snails is just the opposite of identifying unhealthy ones because a sick snail will behave the opposite of its healthy self and the other way round.
Related: How to know if Mystery Snail eggs are fertile
So, if your Snail is active and eats a lot, then it is healthy and you have nothing to worry about.
How Do I Know If My Snail Is Dying/Dead?
To know if your Snail is dead, pick it up and smell its trapdoor, if it smells very foul and offensive, then it is dead.
Snails that are alive and healthy don’t produce offensive odor, if yours happens to do, then it is already dead or almost dead.
The odor they produce when they die is a result of the decomposition bacteria, this is why they will swell a rot when they die and they could also float too as a result of the Decomposition bacteria producing gas in their organs making them swell and float.
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