How do can you tell when a snail is dead?

My black mystery snail (I belive it's an apple snail) hasn't moved, let alone come one of the shell, for several days. I have been battling ammonia in my tank, so if it's dead, that's probably the cause. But how can I be certain it's dead. Also, does the decaying snail add to the ammonia? If indeeed it's dead, should I just leave it there or dispose of it?|||Mystery snails have a trap door that they pull over themselves when they go into their shells. If it is closed it is likely it's still alive. Try to take it out of the tank if it's dead it will fall out of it's shell. I have 4 black and 1 gold mystery (apple)snails and they usually only move around at night.|||If you have an ammonia problem it may be best to remove it. Are you doing water changes? Amquil plus is excellent for sorting out nitrite and ammonia problems.|||Most likely it's dead. They will often play dead, but if it hasn't moved from one spot in days it's dead. Just pull it out, and smell it. If it smells really foul it's dead and decaying. (ammonia central) If not put it back in the tank in an obvious spot, and come back in 2 days. If it's still there it's dead.





PS- Note that a mystery snail can some times float when it's alive.|||Anything that decays will add to the ammonia. Smell it, if it stinks then it is dead and unless you want your water to get even worse then take it out. It could just be in its shell because of the high ammonia and once that is fixed it will come back out.





When a snail floats all it means is there is air trapped in the shell from when they breathe.|||ours floated around when they died and the goldfish kept bopping the shell around. I would say if it's not wedged in where it is, it still has a fighting chance.....|||Lift it out of the water. If you get stuff coming out of the shell when you take it out of the water then it is dead and decaying. If you get nothing look in and see if there is anything there.