# Snails on heater



## Pointy (Oct 1, 2012)

Hi there, just wondering I have an all glass heater for my aquarium not sure what brand it is but I've noticed my Mexican turbo snails hanging around and crawling up and down my heater. My assumption was that if it was hurting or burning the. They would have noticed before they crawled on it... Am I giving them too much credit? My heater constantly runs at the same temp...and a couple of articles said they could burn to death..... What do you think?

Ryan

P.s. my clowns peck at the heater then swim away like they got shocked... Just clowns being clowns?


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## Tino (Sep 10, 2012)

Not sure about the snails, but fish don't get shocked from heaters since they're not grounded and the current cannot travel.
I had a heater in one of my tanks that somehow took in water and I had no clue until I stuck my hand in and got zapped, my fish were completely fine and I have no idea how many hours (or days) that heater had taken in water


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## Pointy (Oct 1, 2012)

So a little sad news my tank suffered its first casualty today . The snail that was on the heater last night was found not moving on its side today by my wife, she nudged it with the net and set it up right and the snail poked out a little but hasn't really moved since.... Did the snail get cooked? Attacked ? Have a heart attack? I'm sad lol

Ryan


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## mousey (Mar 28, 2011)

As someone told me`` ìf they are stupid enought to get on the heater....


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## Jackson (Jan 30, 2009)

I see my snails on the heater constantly and haven dead snails as a result.


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## splur (May 11, 2011)

Depends how hot you have your heater at. Mine at 82F burns my hands when I touch it for too long. So a snail crawling up a heater... probably wouldn't do well.

Typically I find snails are dead when they're hanging out of their shell, very dead looking and smells really bad. I've had snails in their shells for days before, floating and on the bottom of the tank, and they were still alive.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

What kind of snail is it ? I know mystery snails periodically take a break.. they sit and don't move, don't eat, don't come up to the surface to breathe. Can stay like that for days and days, then one day suddenly they're moving again. It's normal behaviour for them. Not so sure about other species though.

And I've certainly had snails crawl on the heater and not suffer any ill effects.. but this place is so warm most of the time, I doubt the heater is on that much. Unless your room is very cold, heaters only turn on for long enough to trip the thermostat and then turn off again, so they are not always warm or hot. I find it hard to imagine there are many critters dumb enough not to react to heat sufficient to harm them by letting go right away. Even snails have a survival instinct. If it were my tank I don't think I'd be too worried about snails being cooked on a heater. If they were on it when it turns on, I expect they would let go pretty quickly.


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## mrobson (Mar 5, 2011)

not sure if it was the heater but its another reason to use a sump


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