animals don’t have feelings
For the past two days, the snail has been living in a vase full of water while Motorcycle Boy was treated for parasites. (Snails can’t handle the treatment drops.) This means that the snail has not had a decent environment or any food for 48 hours. He quit roaming around on his one big foot and curled up inside his shell.
So I swapped out part of the water in the fish tank and dumped in the snail. He’s resting on the bottom now, peeking out but not moving. The fish, unpeturbed, monitors him closely every few minutes. And when I came into the room a second ago, the fish was sitting on the bottom, curled around the not-well snail.
Comments
What's going on there, do you think? Is the fish threatening the snail, comforting it, or just hanging out with it? Maybe these two really are Spongebob and Gary!
Posted by: senioritis | February 10, 2006 11:34 AM
I think it’s one of the last two possibilities. He never flares up or attacks the snail. When I first put the snail in, he’d swim over and look veeeery closely every few minutes. Last night, when the snail was obviously not feeling well, he curled around it and, briefly, sat on top of it. I’m not sure how much the snail appreciated it, since he’s now huddled off in a far corner, but I think Motorcycle Boy meant well.
(Mom asked if the tank was too cold and they were huddled together for warmth, but the water does stay in the tropical zone so I doubt that’s it.)
Posted by: Krista | February 10, 2006 5:21 PM
Well, check this out!
Posted by: senioritis | February 22, 2006 9:13 PM