I bought a new snail on Monday. It is a black mystery snail - really nice shiny shell about an inch in diameter. He is in my snail tank with my golden apple snail (who is about 2 years old and whose shell is 2+ inches in diameter). My golden apple snail eats anything - I usually give him lettuce, cucumber and shrimp pellets but since I got my new guy he has not eaten a thing. I even tried those calcium rich vacation feeder things since that is what he was eating in the store whenI bought him. He seems to be moving around the tank ok - any ideas on why he is not eating? Weird? I thought snails love to eat

Now that is odd!

You could try a new food and see if he likes that maybe, Like baby carrot's, Snail Wafer's something like that.

Or could you isolate him during a feeding and see if he eat's when he's alone?

Thanks. I could try isolating him - I just wanted him to get used to (and like) his new home. I tried putting him directly on top of the piece of lettuce and the vacation feeder and he just wandered off doing his own thing! Maybe he is on a diet

I don't have any special snail wafers - do you think he might like spirulina pellets? I have those for my fish.

Sure, I think you could try that.

He could be warming up to the new pad still also. Or like you said, Maybe he's on a diet..heheh. I don't think Iv'e ever seen any of my snail's not eat?!! I thought all snail's were PIGGIES....

Whats the temperature? He may have been in a warmer tank in the store and coming into your cooler tank has put him into hibernation mode.

Good point - the tank temp is only about 74F and he was in a much larger tank with a heater at the store. If he was in hibernation mode would he still move around like he is doing? Does it just make them eat less or actually hibernate in their shell (he's not doing that)?

My other snail is loving it - all this extra food he gets to gobble up

hmm, when mine did it, tey would stay in their shells a lot and then only move about a bit.. or very slowly. The cooler temp would slow everything down. It may just be slowing his appetite.
I dont know if snails can get stomach upsets lol..

Hmm, Your tank temp. seems the norm. Mine is about at 74 right now.

Snail's are more active at night, Take a peek in there when you shut the light's off tonight he might be more active then. That is when I feed mine as well.

Ok, I have tried lettuce, cucumber, broccoli and the calcium vacation feeders and from what I can tell Midnight (that's what I named him) hasn't eaten much of any of them (Big Goldy on the other hand is loving it all ). I also tried Spirulina and shrimp pellets but couldn't really tell if he was eating those. He is moving around fine though. Should I just assume he is getting enough to eat? Is there anythng I am missing about mystery snails vs. golden apple snails which can explain his pickiness about food?

I would stay away from the vacation feeders. I remember reading on an apple snail forum that some members there lost snails because of them. And most of the time what you will see called a mystery snail is an apple snail.