Getting a snail to release the glass. FYI

Sk8r

Staff member
RC Mod
Now and again there are snails that, until you can get your final position on a coral, may 'help' just a bit too much. Really big chestnuts and turbos are in that category.

Pulling on a a snail is not the best way, and may injure them seriously. Instead, get a fingernail under the edge of the mantle (an old credit card will also work) and push a little, while maintaining a hold on the shell. It's kinder and also more effective. Usually they'll turn loose before you've pushed more than 1/8" into their footprint.

Works to a certain extent on anemones, too, but be very gentle: injury to a nem's foot is life-threatening. If you want them just to move, redirecting the tank current (without blasting the nem) is often enough to say 'the food may be better over here.' That also works if you've had a nem go walkabout behind the rocks. A current change often prompts a nem to move to a more advantageous position. Then make it happy before you try to move it again. In general, like the 800 lb gorilla, the nem camps where it wants to be.

While I'm on the topic: pointy top snails are incapable of traveling on the sand: they fall over, and crabs will consider them lunch when they do: not the crabs' fault: they view a tilted snail as a dead snail, which without owner intervention is what happens. They just want to be the first crab there. Also margarita snails, though pretty, are not for us: they're a cold water species, and they're a goner in our tanks.
 
i usually just hit it with my algae scrubber haha, usually on accident but gets the job done to get them to release too
 
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