Stomatella snail just split in half..

[Calappidae]

I got a huge hitchhiking Stomatella snail (about 2 inches in length) in my 125. He began climbing the glass and the yellow tang nipped his shell. I tried picking it up to relocate it.. and it just split in half.. the other half of it's body seperated after I made contact with it like a lizard loses it's tail.. and it's still moving and grabbing the glass.. and the stomatella itself is moving (but much slower).

Is this normal and will it recover?

 

[Whiterabbitrage]

No idea. Never saw this happen before. Hope it recovers.

 

[pagojoe]

LOL yes, it will recover. That actually happens pretty often, since they can "autotomize" the rear part of the foot. There are a few other molluscs that can do it, but Stomatellas are the most likely candidates. Lots of times you find Stomatella snails in the tank that have short feet, or tails, and some with long feet. The short ones have all dropped the rear part of the foot at some point in an attempt to escape some perceived danger.

Cheers,


Don

 

[Calappidae]

What about the other half? The half that broke off grabbed the glass, would that by chance recover or is it just nerves?

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Nope. Think of it as the same ability lizards have of dropping their tail when something grabs it by the tail. Like the lizard's ability to regrow it's tail, the stomatella can do the same.

 

[taricha]

This just happened. Was pretty crazy. Tried to move the stomatella with some long forceps and the tail grabbed the forceps while the rest of the snail crawled away and I'm left confused as to what the heck happened. The tail which I put on a rock "stood up"and wiggled and waved to get attention.
Have to applaud the little invertebrate. Perfect execution and it worked like a charm.
...No idea where that snail went.

 

[Betta132]

Perhaps the tail is supposed to attract attention in order to distract whatever tried to eat the snail, and that's why it does all the waving.