Any Mystery Snail experts out there?

[rtro92]

I have a yellow mystery snail, and he's acting funny.

I've had him for about 4-5 months, he's ping pong ball sized and has always been healthy and active. I treated for ich about 6 weeks ago, the treatment contained Malachite so I moved him to a temporary tank for about a week. After I stopped treatment, I did a water change and waited about a week before putting him back in, so the medicine would clear up and not harm him when placed back in.

Since I've put him back in, he hasn't been as active. Normally he'd be cruising around all over the place. Now he's mostly stationary, he does get around but doesn't scale the walls. I often find him in the same spot hours later, still crunched up in his shell.

This is where it gets weird. If I remove him from the tank and sit him in direct air for about 4-5 minutes and then set him back in the tank, he instantly gets more active when he's back in. He'll climb around stuff and have his antenna flying around, just like he was before. This last for about 2-3 days, then he'll go back to stationary snail mode.

Here's my hypothesis: After placing him back in the tank, the medicine wasn't 100% cleared up and damaged him, making it difficult to climb up for fresh air. This lack of air severely hampers his movement.
--OR--
Do snails not require direct air like that? Is this just perhaps a phase??

[lohachata]

i would suggest that you do another water change and run some carbon in the filter to remove any risiduals from the meds...

[rtro92]

I've done about 3 water changes since then :/

Kinda hoping someone knows how much air a snail needs!

[lohachata]

try www.applesnail.net ....i think that's the site....

[Charlie1]

Invertabrates are very sensitive to copper. I can tell you 1 week did not get rid of all the medication, I would go to walmart, get a 1gal tank for like 10 dollars, a small heater and seperate him for the time being.

[Colonel Moose]

On a side note, wow. I didn't know mystery snails got that big. I thought they always stayed tiny. I kinda want one now.