we have a blue mystery snail. have had him for several months and he's done great. last night we cleaned the tank. we put him back in, and his shell separated from his body. it's now being held on only by the center flat piece on the bottom. he's still climbing around really well and moves alot, but the situation isn't right at all. we called petsmart and the lady said he has a fungus. i've never heard of such a thing. she says he needs fungal medication or he'll die. my daughter is 9 and all upset. from what i've read, this is a problem w/soft water, not a snail fungus. his shell looks healthy otherwise and has no holes/indentions. he's always been very active, has grown a great deal, etc. he still is in fact. what should i do to fix his shell? if i leave it alone it won't just fix itself will it?

i posted that before i registered and realized no one can respond to my ?. so i'm replying now that i AM registered. oops...

I will respond whether or not you are registered, you just wouldn't know it unless you checked back later.

A blue mystery snail sounds very pretty.

I'm confused. His body is out of the shell except for the foot being attached to the trapdoor? Snail shells are part of their body. If a snail did become detached from its shell, it might live a short time but could not survive. Depending on what happened and how severe it is, the body might be able to reattach into the shell. I've had people claim they have snails out of their shells and still alive. I really don't believe it. Could you post or send me a photo of your snail out of the shell so I can have a better idea of the situation and if it's even possible? Fungus has nothing to do with it. Soft water can cause holes in the snail shell but won't make the snail come out of its shell. It's body is physically attached inside. It has to be ripped out to come out. A snail can't decide to come completely out of the shell anymore than a turtle can.

Or, maybe I am misunderstanding the whole situation. Could you mean that the trapdoor has detached from the main shell but that the snail itself is still in the main shell? If so, that's fairly common with apple snails.

this is our snail gary. (like from spongebob.) :P see the flat thing at the bottom of the big part of his shell? it's come loose from the big part of his shell...like they're separated and barely holding on to each other. gary still seems held very tightly to the little flat part tho. he does drag around the big round part of his shell, but i'm sure it's annoying for him. will they grow back together somehow, or will the big part eventually fall all the way off? and if so, will it ever grow back? as u can see from the pic, he's moving around just fine.

I can see the main shell and something off to the left (the trapdoor or part of the body?). Where is the snail's body/innards itself? Is that the black stuff under the shell or is it out of view? Some photos from other angles would be more helpful. You say he drags the main shell. Is his innards inside the shell, at least part of them, or is his body truly out of the shell? As I said, a snail cannot live without their main shell. It is part of them. They cannot grow another one.

his body is the black part you see under the shell. his "butt" is to the left and the pointy thing to the right is his antennae. the trapdoor is what you're seeing to the left. he can still pull his body all the way inside his main shell, but it's loose from the trapdoor and hangs bulkily. i don't know if it's dangerous, if it'll fall off eventually, or what i can do to fix it. i tried to get him to do something more appropriate for pics, but he was uncooperative.

It sounds like he's still part of his shell then. That should be the case since he's still moving around. The body color of snails with light shells is normally light as well so the dark color didn't seem right to me. Was his body always dark? As I mentioned, the trapdoor may become separated from the main shell but should still be attached to the body. Even if it fell off, that probably wouldn't be fatal (unless it prevented the snail from going into the shell when a predator attacked). I don't think the snail could grow another trapdoor. Sometimes apple snails will hang more of their bodies out of the shell than normal but they're still anchored into the shell. That may be the case here. If he's moving, he's alive. I can't say if something is wrong with him or not. More photos would be helpful but I know that animals seldom cooperate for that!

his body has always been dark black like this. he's still moving around really well, just dragging that stupid clunky shell. i'll try to get some pics and post them if he gets in a position where you can really see how his shell hangs around. thanks for all your help.