When I bought a new plant for my betta I disinfected it with bleach, and put it in his tank. Well, to my surprise, an itty-bitty snail made his way into the tank. I decided to let him be, as he had been such a fighter to live through the bleach and whatnot. I named him Franklin, and he had soon doubled in size 5 times over. He became my little buddy, and also Dude (my betta)'s friend. Well, low-and-behold, he seems to have disappeared. It's been about a week now that I haven't seen him, and I'm starting to lose hope. He's about a centimeter long (maybe a bit longer), which is about the size of the gravel...which makes it very hard to spot him if he's on the ground. About 4 days ago I cleaned Dude's tank (it despretely needed it), and now I'm worried I may have buried Franklin alive. I've tried a couple times to push the gravel around with a wooden spoon, hoping to free him if he's stuck under it...but to no avail. The wierd thing is that just when he went missing (which was a few days before I cleaned the tank) I found a wierd "gel" smear on the side of the tank, full of little spots...I thought it was eggs, but it was near the bottom of the tank, and soon disappeared. I have no idea what it was, but ever since then, Franklin's been gone.
I guess my question to you all is this, is there anything I can do? or should I just hope that if he is buried, his death will be peaceful (which I know it wouldn't, and which makes me sad)? I just miss the little guy crawling all over the glass, making zig-zags in the algae....
anyways, any advice would be appreciated...thanks guys!

Snails are actually very strong creatures, and unless your gravel is more than 2 inches deep, it shouldn't be too much of a problem if you've burried him. He should be able to pop himself back out again.

Have you thought of the possibility that he may have crawled out of the tank?

Also, I read earlier today, that someone else had a snail missing, and it had actually crawled inside the filter and was feasting on the slime in there - so don't give up hope!

Is Dude a Betta? Bettas do eat snails. Sorry.

Jag

Still no sign of Franklin...how strange. I've cleaned the tank again, hoping to at least move the gravel around to see if I couldn't give him a hand...but he's still missing. I haven't found him outside the tank either....hm, how upsetting. I don't think Dude could have eaten though (he is a betta), as the snail was way too big for him (a centimeter and a half) and I don't see how Dude would have been able to (it's not like the snail could have fit into his mouth).
Well, I'll let you guys know if I ever solve the mystery.

When i had a betta and a snail together they were fine...

I really wish i knew how to help! he's not hidden really really well in the plants?

No, i find that snails do great with bettas.
I would understand something very very very small,but anything bigger
then 1 cm long i don't think the betta would be able to eat the snail.

Have you looked in your filter?

I had a snail who disappeared... I didn't know what happened to him...

Me being a new snail keeper, (He was my first snail!!) wasn't paying attention either when I was cleaning my tank!!!

I was more concerned with not distrubing my fishies!

I looked and looked for two whole days... after the second day of still not finding him... I thought back....

Turned out, I cleaned out the tank, took out some decoration, and the poor snail was in one of the decoration!!

RIP

Aww thats a real sad story Bethany...but we live and learn in this life..but we make it up to any new animals we have in the future..many years age I kept a fish for 4 years in a plastic trifel dish in fact I called him Trifel..I used to scoop him out with my hands pop him in a cup and put loads of washing up liquid in his bowl give it a good scrub and rinse off then put fresh water in right from the tap and pop him back in he developed a twisted body with living and swimming in a small area and he must have had a rotten life and been bored but he did live 4 years..amazing now my fish have all lifes little pleasures they are spoilt rotten , plants big space to swim live food nice tank other fish for company but I have had scare after scare with them..nitrates etc just doesnt seem right LOL...Linda

As an update, still no Franklin....I do believe he's gone, wherever it is he went. I figure he must have crawled out (no lid) and then maybe I vacuumed him up when I was vacuuming the living room...hm, that's a shame. Well, we live and learn I guess. RIP Franklin.....

I don't know about bettas, but I think goldfish can crush snails shells and eat them. The "stuff" wouldn't have been want was left of your snail would it....? I always heard once you had snails you would always have them in a tank - I mean the little brown ones, not ones you buy and they get really big. Anyway, I see them every once in a while in my tank, but have never had them over take it so I guess they fish keep them ate. But then again, if your betta were going to eat him you would have thought he would have done it when the snail was smaller. Hope you find him, dead or alive, at least you will know what happened.

I once had 2 snails in my goldfish tank.....about 2 weeks after I had them, I woke up for class one morning, and one of them was gone...I couldn't find him anywhere....eventually, i did find him.....on my dresser all dried out I was actually shocked that he got out of the tank, it had a full hood on it, he must have crawled up the filter pipe and out that way....poor little guy

bubblegoose do you have a lid on your tank?

My snail likes to hide inside the plastic stump. The first time I saw him in there I thought he was stuck but I was wrong. If you have any hollow objects in your tank your snail might be hiding in there.

Hope you find Franklin soon.