Long Live Socrates, The Snail

Socrates the snail died yesterday.

He had been very still for days, something I read is normal.  It seems they go dormant for periods then get back to their active lives.

I thought Socrates was in a dormant state, but when we got back from Brooklyn last night (we had a  nice visit with  Emma, Jay and Robin, Jon’s daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter) I saw that his shell was in a different place in the tank and it was empty.

The same thing happened to one of our bumblebee snails  (we had two, the other one is busy eating algae as I write this after a dormant period of about two weeks.)

When they die, the fish eat them.  (I’ve also read that some goldfish will eat lives snails, but I never saw any danger of this when Socrates was alive.)

Socrates was a Mystery Snail, and they only live about a year.  I don’t know how old Socrates was when I got him, but I have no reason to believe he didn’t die after living his expected life span.

I was sad last night when I saw Socrates’ empty shell.  After all, he brought me into the world of snails.  Something I never thought much about.

But I’ve decided that snails are like chickens in that they die often and if I’m going to continue having them in my life, I have to accept that.

So I’m going to get another snail and name him Socrates II and when he dies I’ll get Socrates III.  And so on.

This way the idea of Socrates, the wondrous snail, will live on.  And I will continue to get joy from their existence and they will get to live a good and productive life in my fish tank.

Long live Socrates, The Snail.