I have some snails in a tank with an aquaclear 300 and for some reason they like to try and climb inside the intake tube even though they are too big to fit. I check to make sure they aren't stuck since sometimes their door gets stuck in the slats of the intake and I have to get it out for them. Well this snail didn't have it's door stuck but the foot was kind of in it, it is also one of my biggest snails so I didn't really think much of it. I woke up this morning and noticed that the snail wasn't there anymore but the door and the foot was still attached to the intake. I found the shell right below the filter and took that out plus what was stuck to the filter. I wasn't sure if it was dead or not so I put in it a bowl and I checked on it like an hour later and saw it was very slowly coming out of it's shell. So now I know that's it's alive but can it survive? How can it walk around without its foot? Can it grow the foot back?

I took a pic of it while it's in the bowl.

Poor thing!! I'm so sorry... I don't think that is something the snail can live with unfortunately. Have you gone to applesnail.net and posted for help there? They have more expertise on the subject. If it were me, I think I would euthanize him to be honest with you... Is the snail still moving around?

It has come out of the shell further and its antennae are moving but as far as the snail actually moving like walking around, no it's not.

I was thinking euthanizing it would be best too but I have never had to do that before and I'm still hopeful it will be OK and learn to live without the foot, I know it's just wishful thinking though.

I have posted over there but no one has even read my post yet

I have seen them lose the little 'trap door' and it always grows back, but I have never seen one lost the door and a hunk of foot as well. How is the snail doing today? If it still has most of the foot it should be okay. They can regenerate really well when their bodies are damaged.

For preventative measures, I would get some pantyhose and secure some around the intake tube so that the snails cannot get stuck. You can secure it with a rubber band, just cut off a peice and stretch it over the intake.

Is this a snail-only tank?

Sad to say the snail didn't make it and it died over night I guess it was for the best though since I'm sure it was in a lot of pain.

I did have all my snails in a snail only tank but I took it down when I upgraded another tank so all my snails were split into my remaining tanks when this happened. I set up another snail tank in another room but the filter that was used before had to now recycle, I did help jump start it with some media from another tank but I didn't want to put all the snails in right away so I'm slowly adding them.

Im sorry about your snail, hopefully your others wont make the same mistake.