Turbo snail abandons shell??

[TXSea]

Hello all,
This morning, before I went to work, I noticed my turbo snail was upside down and was stretching out to cling to the live rock. When I turned the shell over, it abandoned the shell and slithered up under my rock! Why would my snail abandon his shell? There weren't any hermits or shrimp around him when he did this. Any ideas would help! Thanks!

[Pennies2Cents]

Hello,

This is the first I heard of a snail abonding shell??? But I do hope he finds a new one.. The shell is his protection and possibly without it, It may become lunch for other critters in your tank.

We recently had a turbo that looked the same way as yours but I left it to only find an empty shell the next morning. It was already dead and the crabs ate what was left...

Hope this helps...

[tebstan]

The snail is supposed to be physically attached to the shell. If he came out of his shell, he is probably doomed due to predation. :(

The first time I heard of this, I was thinking "yeah right. Not possible." But it happens!

The possible reasons for leaving the shell can be environmental stress, damaged ligament, internal parasite.... the list goes on. (In other words, no one really knows.) Most reports of it happening were from hobbyists, but there have been some studies.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m.../ai_n27245028/

[Pennies2Cents]

Good link: Tesba..

[TXSea]

Thanks for the link. Upon further examination of the shell, there was still part of the snail in the shell so I dunno why part of the snail came out but the rest was still in tact. Either way, there was a good chunk of dead snail in the shell and it rotted off and left a foul odor to my tank. I got the dead part out and tossed it and my carbon/chemipure seems to have helped clear the odors fast. Very very very foul odor. ack!