The snails are eating the algae off the leaves in the fish tank.
You can see the pattern their teeth make in the algae. Small staccato lines of brown and green.
This morning I watched Socrates II make his way from under the leaf to the top of it. At first he seems just a soft, slow-moving mass of snail. But slowly, you start to see his antenna, then his tiny eyes, the second pair of antenna, and his breathing tube to the right.
Last his shell appears in all it’s glory.
He uses his long antenna to feel his way around and his shorter ones is what he uses to smell with. These the his strongest senses, snail don’t have very good eye sight.
One of the Goldfish bit off Socrates II’s antennas, no doubt thinking they were food. But you can see how they’ve grown back. Once again he waves them around, with the elegance of a dancer.
If you look closely, you can see Socrates II’s mouth working as he eats the algae from the top of the leaf.
