The snail that may not be in the tank
Every nerite move starts with a search, because this snail's favourite habitat includes the rim, the lid, the filter housing, and occasionally the floor beside the tank. Nerites climb out as a matter of routine and can survive out of water for a while in a humid spot, so before any water is drained, check the underside of the lid, the equipment, and every decoration as it comes out. Finding your snail after the old tank is emptied, dried, and boxed is a common and avoidable moving-day grief.
Count them, if you keep several, and write the number down. A snail is the easiest pet in the world to leave behind precisely because it asks for nothing and announces nothing.
Damp travel beats wet travel
A nerite does not need to swim to its new home. In fact it travels best in a small rigid container lined with cloth or paper soaked in its own tank water, or resting in just enough tank water to keep it wet, sealed with a lid that has its air holes inside the container's rim rather than at a climbable edge. Sloshing in a deep bag risks the snail being thrown against hard surfaces; steady dampness lets it clamp down and wait, which is what nerites are built to do.
Keep the container dark, at room-stable temperature, and in the cabin where you can guarantee it will not bake on a sunny seat or chill against an air vent. Do not pack the snail inside a bag of plants or filter media to save space, because arriving unharmed matters more than arriving efficiently, and a crushed shell cannot be repaired by good intentions.
The righting problem on arrival
Set the snail down deliberately at the new tank, on the glass or a smooth rock below the waterline, right side down with its foot able to grip. A nerite placed upside down on gravel may be unable to right itself, and a snail that cannot right itself cannot feed and may not survive the week in a tank where everyone assumes it is resting. This small act of placement is the most consequential minute of the whole move.
Let the destination water match the old tank's temperature before release, and place the snail near, not on, a surface with some algae or biofilm so its first meal is within a crawl. A freshly scrubbed new setup is a desert to a nerite, so resist over-cleaning the glass and rocks of the tank it is moving into.
Escape-proofing the new home from day one
A move is the perfect moment to fix the gaps the snail has been exploiting: lid corners, cable cut-outs, and filter openings. Cover them before the snail goes in, not after the first disappearance, because a nerite that leaves the new tank in its first unsettled night may end up somewhere far less survivable than the old tank's rim.
Check the waterline each morning for the first week. A nerite repeatedly parked above the water is often commenting on the water itself, so test before assuming wanderlust.
Numbers, water values, and the locations of favourite escape gaps are humble details that moves erase, so KinsLe keeps them in its Pet Passport where the nerite's record is as carefully sealed as its travelling container.