blue snails

Question
QUESTION: I have an aquarium w/two hermit crabs on land (they go for occassional swims) 2 small water frogs, 2 small albino catfish and added 2 blue snails a few months ago. One has stopped eating, moving at all, it is not "hanging out of it's shell" as I read they will do when dead, I did remove from the tank this morning and put in a seperate bowl.  Do blue snails hibernate, how can I tell if it is dead?  Any other advise... I do have a small brown algae problem(thus the snails) and I feed the crabs crab cakes, and fresh fruit and vegies.  The frogs love beta food and fish flakes which the catfish eat both of too.  put in carrots for the snails, but afraid I may have underfed them.

ANSWER: Put a leaf of lettuce in the bowl with the snails... if after being in there for over night the snails have not moved they are probably dead.  let me know... dave

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks Dave.  Ok, he's dead, did that last night, actually put a snap pea in there, no movement, no sign of it being touch. But he doesn't smell at all (I read they'd smell like a rotten egg) The other one is fine.  Did we do something wrong, how much do they need to eat?  I'm afraid we underfed, thinking they would eat the algai and dropped fish/frog food.  Do you know what kind of snail it is?  It's small, and blue, with a blueish black body, sort of a smooth shell, not pointed like the pictures I've seen.

Answer
Hi Cristy:  He is probably a mystery snail... akin to the apple snail.  I actually have a snail tank... and I couldn't even begin to tell you how many snails are in there...  I use them as the clean up crew in tanks where I have baby fish (fry) because I do not like to clean the gravel where there are fry.  I feed lettuce leaves every day... I do this everyday because at feeding time I remove the leaves  put in the day before... because they will rot and cause problems.... this is exactly how you feed snails... feed them what they will eat and each day replace the food with a new snack but REMOVE the old food.... dave