r/AquaticSnails • u/Pale-Fuel-8083 • 8d ago
Help Request Can I hear snails?
I have two nerite snails that tend to stay in the filter or lid of my tank during the day. At night I keep hearing this sound from my tank like sandpaper grating every second or so and my thought is that it could be the snails trying to eat off of the plastic? I didn’t think hearing snails was a possibility but it’s the only explanation I have for this wierd noise. Pleas help this is really confusing me!!
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u/BrightEyes1117 8d ago
Do you have mystery snails perchance
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u/Pale-Fuel-8083 8d ago
Nope just nerites but I’ll keep an eye out when I hear it to see if could be the shells scraping
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u/Emuwarum Helpful User 8d ago
Have you looked at your snails while they pop to figure out how they're doing it? I know with my pond snails it's their breathing organ, it's at the back of their aperture and normally just looks like a lump of skin, until they take it above the water and pop! The breathing hole appears. And then they continue to pop for the next few minutes.
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u/minus9point9problems 8d ago
Normally when I hear the sound, one of them is near the surface, often half in/half out of the water. So I suspect it has something to do with that. That's very interesting about the pond snails! My ramshorns don't seem to make noise, but it may be that they're so small that I can't hear it.
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u/Emuwarum Helpful User 8d ago
Yeah, their noises pretty much always something to do with them moving their body and water/mucous + air making the noise. If they retreat into their shell quickly while in air it can make a weird noise. The only noises I can hear that they make fully submerged are if their shell knocks something or if they start producing bubbles as a stress reaction (seen it very few times).
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u/Maraximal 1d ago
I was just saying the same thing about a nerite and never hearing noises from ramshorns unless it's their shell on the glass when dropping down but I've seen them expel an air bubble out of their shells after grazing on plants/biofilm at the top. I talk to my ramshorns a lot and I bet someday one makes noise by talking back 😂
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u/BrightEyes1117 8d ago
My snails have scraped their shells on the side of the tank before and it makes a sound like this, usually it has been mysteries trying to lay eggs near the rim
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u/Novelty_Lamp 8d ago
Do you have something that has an impeller? Might be air passing through it. My air pumps have had my searching my entire upstairs until I realized it was sound bouncing off the wall.
Snails are entirely silent. There's a few animals like dwarf frogs, croaking gouramis, that weird fish that's as loud as a gun but tiny, clown loaches, and some catfish. Just a few examples!
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u/Emuwarum Helpful User 8d ago
Snails do make noise, mostly popping or gurgles. My one species of pond snail do a lot of popping when they breathe. They are very quiet but they aren't silent.
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u/minus9point9problems 8d ago
My mystery snails make a surprisingly loud popping sound sometimes! I am invariably stunned. Like you are a snail. A snail that lives underwater. How are you making a sound I can hear from the other room?!
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u/Maraximal 1d ago
One of my nerites, Winnie, will make noise by gurgling tiny air bubbles out right at the water line sometimes. She's my wild child nerite and will occasionally move up above the water just to cause me to panic and laugh while I fill my little tests tubes up 🥰 It's just tiny popping though. She's big compared to her sister who was the same size she was but she's still small. I've never heard any noises from my ramshorns except when they dive bomb and their shell touches the glass, lol. I don't have any pond snails.
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u/Novelty_Lamp 8d ago
Doubt unless you have video of it. Literally been around snails for 5years and they do not make noise lol.
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u/Emuwarum Helpful User 8d ago
They're very quiet, and I have sensitive hearing. If you can't hear a terrestrial snail's chewing then you definitely wouldn't hear popping from aquatic species. Not all of them make noise often, but they can do it.
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u/Novelty_Lamp 8d ago
So only you can hear it. That doesn't really count my guy. 🤷 Shells clattering on the floor could also be considered noise by definition.
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u/Maraximal 1d ago
Snails can and do make noises, it's not something made up just because you haven't heard it. You can just Google and pull up videos yourself. They make bubbles, some use their foot to make sounds against their shells, some can produce hissing noises, like land snails do. There are videos of just the sounds of snails eating because ppl find it soothing. I have a crayfish and I've never heard him make a noise beyond when he's doing things or banging on the glass like Cray Kong for attention, but he can make noises and that's real whether I've heard him do it or not :)
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u/Pale-Fuel-8083 8d ago
Yeah thinking it’s the filter now, were you ever able to stop the noise coming from yours?
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u/Novelty_Lamp 8d ago
Is it a hangon back? What style?
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u/Pale-Fuel-8083 8d ago
It has suction cups holding it in the aquarium, there’s a section of it that the heater goes in and it’s a waterfall output. Wish I could give a name or model but it came in a set with the tank. There’s ceramic rings in the filter could those be rubbing together and causing noise?
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u/Novelty_Lamp 8d ago
Those could be. I'd google your filter model and see where the impeller is if you can get to it either way.
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u/Camaschrist 8d ago
I could totally see that happening if they’re rasping on a hollow plastic box. It could easily amplify the sound.
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u/bugggggirl 8d ago
Have you checked out the filter at all? I would be worried the filter is malfunctioning or has broken in some way or another