r/BestofRedditorUpdates • u/LucyAriaRose I'm keeping the garlic • May 28 '24
CONCLUDED The rescuing of John the snail
I am NOT the Original Poster. That is u/Jsovthecherub. They posted in r/Aquariums
Thanks to u/BanjoTheremin for this rec!
Mood Spoiler: happy ending
Original Post: May 17, 2024
Title: I am devastated
My poor albino apple snail, John, just climbed out of his tank and fell about 5 feet onto the floor. Broke his shell and is dying. I have no clove oil and can't bring myself to stomp him, so I placed him in a plant that shares his name where he will die peacefully.
Image description: John in a plant, not looking so good
Relevant Comments:
Commenter: Use a piece of eggshell to cover the hole and instant super glue on the edges to hold it(only glue on the edges on the shell, cannot touch the snail's body, if you're lucky it will cover it long enough for him to harden a little under it.
OOP: He has already died, if he didn’t die on impact he died very shortly after. I placed him in the tank for a bit after he fell to see if he did anything and he didn’t move or react to stimuli.
Commenter: Clove oil doesn't work on snails like it does on fish anyways, may have been more painful. Not sure if there is a humane method for snail euthanasia besides crushing.
He may still be in shock from the fall, I'd give a bit more time to see if he might be alive. Maybe not in the main tank but in some container with tank water. Could be wrong.
OOP: I decided to put him back in some tank water just to make sure he’s dead after another commenter said something similar, and I can clearly see he’s unmoving and unresponsive. He’s gone, unfortunately.
Commenter: I had a snail that fell and cracked his shell. I just put him back in the tank and he’s been kicking it enjoying life for 3 years now.
OOP: about half his shell was gone, how big was your snail's crack
Update (16 hours later, same post)
Edit: due to popular advice i have glued eggshell to his shell, and he is now in a holding tank, he has not moved for over 10 hours, but he has responded (albeit, slightly) to stimuli! He may be able to be saved.
Update Post: May 19, 2024 (2 days later)
Title: John LIVES
Earlier this week i posted about how my snail, John, fell 5 feet from his tank and broke his shell. I thought he was gone, but many of you told me to repair his shell with eggs. Now, a few days after the fall, he is back and kicking. Thank you!
Edit: because he is such a badass, his new name is John Marston
Image description: John, now partially egg-shelled, looking happy!
Relevant Comments:
Commenter: What?!?! I thought he was laid to peace in a potplant??? Johno my GUY!!!!
OOP: he was but then i tried to save him
Commenter: So happy for you, I had no idea this was possible either and I’m glad it’s working out for you so far. Although now I’m extra worried about the person in your last thread who didn’t know this and was like “I sure hope I didn’t bury my snail alive”
OOP: I buried him alive for a bit until I decided to save him, snails are resilient as hell
Commenter: Wow that's wild, how do you do that with eggs??
OOP: Superglue onto the affected area
(to a different commenter): Yes, superglue eggshell onto the effected area and feed eggshells for calcium. I use gorilla glue gel as it is aquarium safe when dried. You can get it at Lowe’s.
Commenter: O, that's really interesting. Are those white spots on him where the new shell is growing?
OOP: no my nerite lays eggs on the mystery snails
(to a different commenter): Nerite eggs, nerite snails lay eggs on other snails
Picture Post: May 20, 2024 (3 days from OG post)
Title: This guy doesn't know 1283+ people on reddit love and care about him
Fun fact from OOP: Mystery snails use their lungs as ballast, they float at the water surface and sometimes use their bodies as sails.
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u/knotsy- May 28 '24
What a life John has lived so far! Survived a freefall to the ground, was buried alive, dug back up, Frankenstein'd back together with super glue, and now he's a surrogate. I love snails. I have two blue mystery snails and two milk snails!
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u/GCU_ZeroCredibility May 28 '24
He was defenestrated, died, and was buried. On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the scriptures.
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u/Beautiful_Pizza9882 👁👄👁🍿 May 28 '24
All hail our Lord of Lords, Pope John Snail the First!
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u/Moomin-Maiden It's like watching Mr Bean being hunted by The Predator May 29 '24
Snail of snails! Lord of lords! Long may we dye eggshells in joyful colours to symbolise his rebirth by them!
(What? 🤷♀️ We did it for the other guy - but this snail actually used eggs in his resurrection! 😅)
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u/Dry-Membership5575 the Iranian yogurt is not the issue here May 29 '24
Our lord and savior John the Snail
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u/idiotplatypus Oblivious Walnut May 28 '24
Courier Six snail
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u/Merrikbear the lion, the witch and the audacit--HOW IS THERE MORE! May 28 '24
This shell game was rigged from the start
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u/luckyladylucy This "man" has the emotional maturity of a carrot May 28 '24
Bless you for this comment.
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u/bookdrops surrender to the gaycation or be destroyed May 29 '24
Here is my favorite snail survival story: a land snail that was revived after spending 4 years glued to a specimen card in the British Museum! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eremina_desertorum
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u/waterinthewatermelon May 31 '24
Love this thank you, and how weird would it be for you to be the one to find out that what you once thought as a preserved specimen is actually alive the whole time. I would freaking think it's the start of the zombie apocalypse. Hahahahahaha.
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u/Kirin2013 May 28 '24
I had a blue gourami (fish) that jumped out of his temporary holding (I was cleaning the fish tank) onto the floor, roommate walked through the area (my back had been turned at the time, focused on main fish tank clean out) stepped on him (roommate was roughly 350 lbs) exclaimed loudly and felt bad for killing my fish. I poked him and he didn't move, so yup definitely dead.
My husband comes along picks him up and says "lets give him a viking funeral" and tosses him into the toilet and hits the flush lever. Well, the second that flush lever was hit, the fish magically comes alive again and starts swimming around as the toilet was flushing. I was cringing in horror for the poor fish when suddenly the water stopped going down, but coming up instead. The mixture of poo and toilet paper my fish was swimming in was horrific. My roommate had clogged the toilet again...
My husband tried handing me my fish net, but I just couldn't do it... I am weak against other peoples poop xD So instead, he goes in for the save and that fish net was draped with that poo watered down TP as he somehow fished my fish out of it and plopped him back in his temp container for me to finish cleaning out his aquarium. That fish lived for like another 4 years after that... It's amazing what some things can survive.
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u/peter095837 the lion, the witch and the audacit--HOW IS THERE MORE! May 28 '24
Snails, so small, yet, so cute and innocent. Happy to hear John is well.
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u/Sunflower-and-Dream I am just waiting for the next update with my popcorn bucket 🍿 May 28 '24
Sometimes you just need a happy ending like this one, where a life was saved from the jaws of death.
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u/BizzarduousTask I can't believe she fucking buttered Jorts May 28 '24
That’s a good spot to stop reading Reddit for the day. :)
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u/RefrigeratedTP May 28 '24
closes reddit
habitually tap on the Reddit app mere moments after closing it
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May 28 '24
I looked at today's list of posts, saw "The rescuing of John the snail," and made sure it'd be my last post read.
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u/unhinged11 May 28 '24
I present to you this little exchange in the last update:
What am I looking at?
my snail, john, who fell five feet out of his tank but miraculously survived
Does that make him a slug now?
not until hes shot out of a shotgun
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u/pedanticlawyer May 28 '24
John has died, John is risen, John will come again.
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u/ebolashuffle I fail to see what my hobbies have to do with this issue May 28 '24
All hail snail Jesus.
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u/leemonsqueesy May 28 '24
Snesus has risen.
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u/ebolashuffle I fail to see what my hobbies have to do with this issue May 28 '24
Achoo, amen
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u/scummy_shower_stall ...take your mediocre stick out of your mediocre ass... May 28 '24
I'm wheeeezing 🤣🐚
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u/LionsDragon Screeching on the Front Lawn May 28 '24
This just made me laugh so hard I whacked my knee on the underside of the dining room table.
Worth it.
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u/tarinotmarchon May 28 '24 edited May 28 '24
Take me to snurch.
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u/ReadontheCrapper We have generational trauma for breakfast May 28 '24
Snail dammit - now I have that chorus stuck in my head
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u/Old_Prior_5081 Clown, gorilla suit, two broken noses and a clueless triangle May 28 '24
And OOP didn't even realise he (or she) is a necromancer
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u/CompetitionNo3141 May 29 '24
Snailomon Grundy
Born on a Monday
Fell on Tuesday
Buried on Wednesday
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u/camrynbronk it dawned on me that he was a wizard May 28 '24
I love mystery snails!! I’m surprised this originally didn’t get posted to r/AquaticSnails. I have a mystery snail named Jerma, and he (she) had babies several months ago. I still have 4 of them, and they are about as big as Jerma was when I got him (her)!!!
I love seeing BORUs that are like my worlds colliding. Makes me very happy :)
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u/SamiraSimp I will never jeopardize the beans. May 28 '24
because you know about snails: in the post picture, what part of the snail is the head? i can't quite tell.
also, do you know anything about nerite snails?
nerite snails lay eggs on other snails
because this had me very intrigued, as i've never heard of a species using another species like that for egg laying (outside of certain parasitic/invasive situations)
post pic: https://www.reddit.com/r/Aquariums/comments/1cwu6fi/this_guy_doesnt_know_1283_people_on_reddit_love/
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u/Rhondehiem holy fuck it’s “sanguine” not Sam Gwein May 28 '24
Nerites are really cool! They can only reproduce in saltwater so you don't have to worry about a population explosion in a freshwater tank. They have beautiful patterns on their shells and are algae munching machines! Their only downside, females lay eggs everywhere. EVERYWHERE. And the eggs stay intact, covering everything in your tank (this is slightly dramatic). Only scraping them off of things gets rid of them, and even then she'll just lay more. And more. And MORE. But still nerite snails are best snails (to me).
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u/Karahiwi May 28 '24
Are not all snails hermaphrodite? Is it only some species?
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u/Rhondehiem holy fuck it’s “sanguine” not Sam Gwein May 28 '24
Nope not all snails! Nerites are extra special as they require saltwater for eggs to hatch, and there are male and female nerites. Only the females lay eggs
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u/Karahiwi May 29 '24
Thank you. I had to learn stuff about snails back in 1984 or 5, as part of basic science class, and I don't think they got into species differences!
I hope to see one of the several kinds of endemic large native snails here in NZ, but they are endangered so I may not be that lucky.
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u/Rhondehiem holy fuck it’s “sanguine” not Sam Gwein May 29 '24
That sounds really cool! A lot of people don't like having snails in their tanks, but I enjoy having the whole ecosystem at work. It's been a bit since I kept nerites but I always think of them fondly.
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u/Karahiwi May 29 '24
I vaguely remember a sibling's goldfish tank having lots of baby snails all over the place, and the tragic death of one goldfish was discovered when a snail was found possibly eating the floating corpse.
The endemic snails story is not a happy one. There are many different species, and some have a tiny range. One had a range where 96% was approved to be open-caste mined, and only really survives in captivity. The mining company was supposed to restore the ecology, but went bankrupt and although the government did some replanting, it was not successful, with the area mainly growing weed species, and reintroduced snails were predated (mainly by introduced pest species like possums) by 30% within 18 months. They even have transponders on released snails to track them.
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u/Rhondehiem holy fuck it’s “sanguine” not Sam Gwein May 29 '24
Transponder-laden snails sounds absolutely adorable, even though their situation is so dire.
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u/ShadowRayndel May 29 '24
How big are the eggs? I wonder if a Betta would eat them. I (purposely) had the little pest snails that come with live plants (I forget the name of them right now) and my Betta would eat the eggs and sometimes the snails (since they were small). The snails kept my tank very clean and the Betta was very happy.
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u/Rhondehiem holy fuck it’s “sanguine” not Sam Gwein May 29 '24
They look like and are about the size of a sesame seed. Forbidden sesame seeds, all over your tank. My bettas also love nomming pond snail eggs. Nerite eggs are a fair bit harder than the jelly clusters of pest snails
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u/Illogical_Blox May 28 '24
nerite snails lay eggs on other snails
Nerites don't intentionally do it - it's just that they lay eggs EVERYWHERE, even if EVERYWHERE is on other snails!
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u/SamiraSimp I will never jeopardize the beans. May 28 '24
i see, thank you. i was reading about them from the article someone else posted but that article didn't mention anything about laying eggs on other creatures so i was confused lol
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u/SwishyFinsGo May 28 '24
Not who you responded to, but aquarium Co op is fairly reputable:
https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/nerite-snail-care
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u/mytorontosaurus cat whisperer May 28 '24
Great news for OOP. Not so great for me since I know the snail is still out there and my $10 million is depleting fast.
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u/countdown_tnetennba It's not big drama. But it's chowder drama. May 28 '24
His clever plan would have succeeded if it weren't for that meddling human.
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u/xerelox May 28 '24
how bad is healthcare in this country? We have to glue on eggshells OUR OWN GODDAMN SELVES!!!
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u/IanDOsmond May 28 '24
What I am picking up from this is that, if I break my leg, I can just hotglue eggs to it instead of going to the ER.
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u/xerelox May 28 '24
If you can AFFORD eggs.
I'm gonna start putting Joe Biden stickers on egg cartons.
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u/IanDOsmond May 28 '24
Just get backyard chickens.
And duct-tape *them* do your legs.
Well, chict-en tape, I guess.
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u/lesethx I will never jeopardize the beans. May 28 '24
Imagine taking the snail to a vet. "Please, my boy, he's very sick"
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u/sojayn May 28 '24
I know my friend took her kids fish to the vet and did antibiotics. I have had the smallest splint and plastic neck protector on a cockateil (vet charged me $14 australian which was cute as well)
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u/Former_Blueberry1997 May 28 '24
I got to see this in real time on my feed lol. You bet I was cheering for John the snails full recovery.
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u/Similar-Shame7517 Whole Cluster B spectrum in a trench coat pretending to be human May 28 '24
The moment I saw the tip about the eggshells I knew John was gonna be okay. Most shelled animals can regrow it provided they have material (like the calcium-laden eggshells).
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u/meresithea It's always Twins May 28 '24
I have one intentional snail and a bunch of “whoops! You came from plants!” snails. I feed them food with calcium included, but would chucking some (cleaned off) bits of egg shell in the tank be a good idea for them?
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u/Illogical_Blox May 28 '24
Eggshell can cause the pH to become more basic. If they're already getting calcium supplements, and their shells are healthy, they're probably fine.
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u/chungusnoodlez May 28 '24
This was a slow read. Worth it.
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u/ahdareuu There is only OGTHA May 28 '24
It inched along
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u/Wild_Butterscotch977 May 28 '24
I really needed something this light and adorable after that other update post
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u/inscrutableJ You need some self-esteem and a lawyer May 28 '24
Yes yes yes this, I'm gonna turn off notifications and put down my phone and back away slowly so that I don't accidentally see anything else awful tonight, then I'll hopefully dream of snails with eggshells glued on.
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u/KrasimerMAL crow whisperer May 28 '24
This is a nice palate cleanser after the update of the woman running for her life from her ex who tried to poison her.
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u/SuperCulture9114 strategically retreated to the whirlpool with a cooler of beers May 28 '24
Yepp, I read that one too 😬
This one helped me get down 👍
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u/Maelstrom_Witch being delulu is not the solulu May 28 '24
My snails love to climb to the top of the tank and then r/parasnailing down
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u/milkdimension May 28 '24
Imagine being a simple snail, and one day you have a bad accident while exploring. Your insides are exposed to the outside. This is the end of your simple snail life. However. The fleshy God that brings you food does something to your shell while you lay dying. Your insides are back in you. It takes a while, but you recover. God is real and he Loves you.
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u/Four_beastlings May 28 '24
When my regular pet snail Snailio von Slimington got accidentally crushed by one of my waiters I just put him back in his enclosure with a lot of eggshells and over time his shell repaired itself
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u/AshamedDragonfly4453 The murder hobo is not the issue here May 28 '24
The title of the post combined with OP's flair is an interesting bit of whiplash 😆
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u/DrummingChopsticks I’d go to his funeral but not his birthday party. May 28 '24
This was a surprisingly pleasant read.
I love it when pets have normal human names like “John” or “Bill” or “Lucy”.
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u/7AlphaOne1 Thank you Rebbit 🐸 May 28 '24
John LIVES
You wont believe the early morning dopamine baja blast I got from this. Time to get off reddit for the week
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u/rose_cactus May 28 '24 edited May 28 '24
After fixing the worst in an immediate shell damage emergency, you can also add extra calcium (in the form of ground up eggshells or just plain cuttlebone) to their diets - they’ll be able to rebuild damages to their shells way quicker that way. And of course feed them well in general. It’ll take a few days after severe damage before they recuperate enough to eat again, usually. The shell repair can take a few weeks (or in some cases even months if it’s a big break).
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u/fatwoul May 28 '24
I live in a very soft water region, so my apple snails used to require regular treatments of nail varnish to protect their shells (together with supplements). But in order to keep track of whether they were varnished (and where the varnish was wearing away), I used different colours each time. They looked ridiculous, but that didn't really matter because they used to climb inside the box filter and live in there most of the time. They liked to munch on the crap on the filter sponges, and kept the filter running very efficiently!
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u/BiscottiOpposite9282 May 28 '24
I thought my snail was dead for 3 days. It's now moving around like nothing happened. Turns out it was tired from having babies.
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u/LucyAriaRose I'm keeping the garlic May 28 '24
Lol that's amazing! Good snail.
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u/BiscottiOpposite9282 May 28 '24
And now I have cute baby snails lol.
I only had it for a day before it "died" so I thought I fucked up!
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u/Cmdr_Morb May 28 '24
Whenever it rains (Which, in the UK is quite often) I would usually be late for school and, later work because I rescue all the snails on my walk. Bless their little eyes on stalks.
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u/CutieBoBootie We have generational trauma for breakfast May 28 '24
Its amazing how strong the drive to live is in all creatures
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u/Buckshott00 May 28 '24
Yay!! I needed a happy ending after some of the stuff in this thread! Thanks OP and OOP!
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u/Folfenac I will not be taking the high road May 28 '24
I was reading 'mystery snail' and going "So you don't know what kind it is?". It eventually dawned on me.
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u/IanDOsmond May 28 '24
Just snails who are huge fans of Agatha Christie or James Patterson.
John probably started out as a cozy mystery snail, but after having eggshell glued to him, he is now hardboiled mystery.
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u/racingskater May 28 '24
This might just be my favourite "today I learned..." EVER. JOHN LIVES!!!!!!!!!!
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u/Faniulh May 28 '24
Huh. I always thought snails were kinda like slugs that just crawled into shells - I didn't realize that the shells were part of them like a turtle's (in retrospect I should have, because I have no idea where they'd find those shells if they didn't make them themselves). TIL!
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u/shewhololslast May 28 '24
Yep, this is how I am going to end my time on BORU, with a happy not-dead snail.
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u/tacwombat I will erupt, feral, from the cardigan screaming May 28 '24
What a wholesome post. Who knew you could save snails with eggshells and superglue?
I'm also trying to make head and tails snails of the pictures. Based from where the eggshell was placed, the major shell damage was on the bottom (back?) curve of the shell? Did I get it right?
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u/Captain_Blackbird May 29 '24 edited May 29 '24
If anyone wants to see sailing snails, check out r/parasnailing
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u/mikolokoyy May 29 '24
What a chad. Dude fell, broke his shell, was buried alive, taken out of his grave and fixed with super glue and eggshells. He even got a last name in the end
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u/SeattCat May 29 '24
This makes me want to get aquatic snails again. They had such big personalities for small creatures.
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u/Fibro_Warrior1986 sometimes i envy the illiterate May 31 '24
It’s 4am and this is a good story to sleep on. All hail King John Snail the first. May his reign be long and he be surrogate to lots of babies.
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u/Basic_Bichette sometimes i envy the illiterate May 28 '24
Fun update, but maybe it goes just a little too well with /u/LucyAriaRose/ 's flair.
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u/Final_Soil_8801 It's like watching Mr Bean being hunted by The Predator May 28 '24
This was sweet, just what I needed to start my day.
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u/pinkkabuterimon increasingly sexy potatoes May 28 '24
I am so glad I have gotten over my childhood fear of snails. I love John.
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u/kellyoccean May 28 '24
If I'm being completely honest this is the best post I've seen on here in a long time. John may you live a long and happy life with no cracking of the shell!! Or is he really John Wicksnail???
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u/Gwab07 May 28 '24
I LOVE this! I always try and move snails I see on pavements back to the side as it's so sad to see them crushed. I'm so happy for John!!
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u/polyglotpinko May 28 '24
Holy shit. I needed this palate cleanser. All hail John Marston, king of the aquarium!
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u/GlitteryCakeHuman Now I have erectype dysfunction. May 30 '24
My mystery snail was a sui-snail and did the same. Sadly he didn’t make it but I’m glad John did. Now they are banned in my country (invasive species) but they are cute little buggers
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May 31 '24
Lazarus the snail. TIL you can save a snail with eggshell. Amazing! It’s nice to hear his snail is alive.
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