# Snails surface skating



## Matt Holbrook-Bull (22 Sep 2007)

In case you've not seen this before, snails really do skate around on the surface!  This little (1.5cm) Leopard Ramshorn snail really seems to love it and does it whenever hes not feeding or sleeping!  He adjusts his buoyancy by taking more/less air into his shell.. this allows him to remain neutrally buoyant so he can hang onto the surface tension with is foot.

He really whizzes about in the current, sometimes hanging upside down for ages until he runs into something.  He also uses his body as a 'sail' to catch the current if he wants to move to another place, its pretty extraordinary to watch

Please excuse the poor focus, hes too fast to setup the tripod!  Also, all that surface film comes from my tap water and is visible like this on water change days, so please excuse that as well.










Who says inverts are boring!!!?!


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## George Farmer (22 Sep 2007)

Cool.  An inverted invert!!


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## Matt Holbrook-Bull (22 Sep 2007)

hehehe

such a good quote by the way in your sig


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## Themuleous (24 Sep 2007)

I've had snails do this, seems they use it as a way of getting around quickly.  Saves having to spend hours crawling across the substrate from one side of the tank to the other!

Sam


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