worrying behaviour

[muddydragon]

Calcifer has started acting worryingly, I keep finding him deeply retracted upside down. When he’s awake he struggles to climb to the top as if his shell is far too heavy, sometimes he slips back down. (I imagine I find him upside down due to falling off the lid in the night) I’m worried because my other retic died suddenly recently. His foot is a little more reddish than I remember. I woke him up today with a bath and managed to persuade him to eat some fish flakes (my reasoning being these are probably the most nutritious) he seemed a lot thinner than usual but took a few bites before extremely slowly climbing the tank side. I don’t want to keep waking him up. I’m making him an algae flake/fish flake/ sweet potato mash tonight to try and persuade him to keep eating. And planning on placing him on the dish of it next time I see him awake. I’m wondering weather I should move his tank mates (non-retics) into the spare tank so there’s no risk of them bothering him. Any ideas/opinions?

[choco]

May 12, 2010 10:47:08 GMT muddydragon said:

Calcifer has started acting worryingly, I keep finding him deeply retracted upside down. When he’s awake he struggles to climb to the top as if his shell is far too heavy, sometimes he slips back down. (I imagine I find him upside down due to falling off the lid in the night) I’m worried because my other retic died suddenly recently. His foot is a little more reddish than I remember. I woke him up today with a bath and managed to persuade him to eat some fish flakes (my reasoning being these are probably the most nutritious) he seemed a lot thinner than usual but took a few bites before extremely slowly climbing the tank side. I don’t want to keep waking him up. I’m making him an algae flake/fish flake/ sweet potato mash tonight to try and persuade him to keep eating. And planning on placing him on the dish of it next time I see him awake. I’m wondering weather I should move his tank mates (non-retics) into the spare tank so there’s no risk of them bothering him. Any ideas/opinions?

Just wrote a long reply and lost it >_<
My suggestion was to move him to a smaller tank or tub to prevent him moving around and wearing himself out too much, and to ensure that he's always fairly close to food. You can put him in a smaller tub within the main tank if you'd like, it'll help keep the conditions/temperature the same.
Warm baths are good, especially if you let the snail sit in the warm water for a while - a good soak can help warm them up and encourage them to come out. If you don't want to keep waking him up, maybe try a bath every couple of days.
Is there a chance that he's recently laid eggs and is in need of some rest and recovery?
Are there any signs of mites on Calcifer or any of his tank-mates? Look very carefully as they can sometimes be hard to spot. Check on the snail's body around the shell opening and the breathing hole in particular.
Has anything changed in your house recently - for example, central heating being turned off or windows being opened, making the room a little colder? Any change with extra/less heatmats? New substrate? Cleaning the tank too often?

Sorry I can't help with anything specific, but there's a few ideas to consider there. It's such a shame that when our snails are ill or behaving unusually that we have no way of really knowing what's wrong, and just have to try basic steps and hope for the best

[crossless]

My one normal sized snails was first to wake from hibernation and 2huge snails haven't woke up well this smaller snail kept on climbing on both of them and turned them "upside down" so he had to be moved other terrarium so all others can wake in without disturbing them and it stopped them flipping over too often.

If you can get him eating other good energy boots is honey water it's natural and sweet so I think ok to use with snails. I used once when I was worried about snails that don't eat. I tried few different water/ honey ratios by tasting water by myself to get it sweet but not too sweet for small animal. 100ml water and about 1/5-1 teaspoons of honey is nice.

Hope he get fine soon.

[muddydragon]

May 12, 2010 11:03:04 GMT choco said:

Warm baths are good, especially if you let the snail sit in the warm water for a while - a good soak can help warm them up and encourage them to come out. If you don't want to keep waking him up, maybe try a bath every couple of days.
Is there a chance that he's recently laid eggs and is in need of some rest and recovery?

There is a clutch of eggs in the tank but i suspect they are from the jaditzi.

May 12, 2010 11:03:04 GMT choco said:

Are there any signs of mites on Calcifer or any of his tank-mates? Look very carefully as they can sometimes be hard to spot. Check on the snail's body around the shell opening and the breathing hole in particular.

no mites, i almost wish there were. all other tank-mates are fine (2 margie suts and 3 jaditzi) with the exception of the other retic dying recently.

May 12, 2010 11:03:04 GMT choco said:

Has anything changed in your house recently - for example, central heating being turned off or windows being opened, making the room a little colder? Any change with extra/less heatmats? New substrate? Cleaning the tank too often?

central heating has been turned off but they have a lamp on a thermostat that keeps clicking on and off so i know its not too cold. I cleaned the tank fairly recently, just wash down and put in new coir and moss, but not incredibly recently (about a month ago i'ld say).


I'm at a loss and it's taking longer for him to wake up from baths and he's retracting sooner and doesn't seem to want to eat this time. hes so thin if it wasn't for the shell i would have thought he was a completely different snail

I just have to keep telling myself where there's life there's hope but it's not looking too good.

[muddydragon]

calcifer has died

i just can't understand it no rhyme or reason always such a fat lively snail who was always eating suddenly just stopped eating and died.
why did my 2 beautiful perfect retics die within about a week of each other
I can't help but feel like i must have done something wrong but i dont know what it was.
my beautiful calcifer you were the best

[Alisha]

RIP Calcifer and Lucifer.
You did all you could, maybe it's just they loved each other and when one died the other died because it was missing its mate?
I don't know if snails suffer from heartbreak, but some animals do.
Sometimes snails just die for some reason.

I came on to this thread a minute ago chanting "please don't die, please don't die." It may sound sad. But I feel for you and hope you're OK.
And STOP blaming yourself
xx

[Dusk]

RIP Calcifer

[funnykooky]

aww sorry to hear about your snail

[muddydragon]

thanks guys

[ade1999]

Just out of curiosity are you sure the eggs arent theirs ? Retics seem to have a habit of populating a new generation and then passing away. Unfortunately it seems to be a trend amongst them so I would keep a careful eye on the eggs.

Its possible a few people here have experienced this with A.Reticulata and for whatever reason this has happened I offer my condolences for your loss.

Regards
Ade and family

[muddydragon]

it's not impossible but i have seen the jaditzis buried spril up near the place so i suspect them. but they may be retics (i hope they are i really wanted baby calcifers though not at that price ) i did read the thing on them drinking lots before and after and i do have a water 'bowl' in there so that didn't seem to make much difference. also it's one batch of eggs and two dead snails unless they laid in the same place which seems unlikely. but i did have a set of duff eggs a while ago...
fingers crossed for retic babies hopefully i will find out soon!

[AlienSnail]

Yes it does seem to be common for retics to die after laying eggs. It happened to mine too. Sad news indeed. I really hope you have retics eggs and that they hatch. xx