Snails Dying or Dead

[newnano]

I think some of my snails are either dying or all ready dead. You can see from my list of tank inhabitants below. What would mak them die off so quickly? I've had them about a week. The Bumble Bees seem ok I think, but the Astraea seem to be dead or dying. A few were on their sides so I flipped them over. When I did, I saw no movement at all. I can't even find the Nassarius snails. I know they burrow into the sand, but I even see one empty shell. Tested the water this afternoon: 0 ammonia, 0 trite, 10 trate, pH about 8.

 

Any help is appreciated.

[newnano]

Forgot to ask. Should I remove the dead snails? If I don't, it will cause an ammonia spike right?

[Isaka]

My guess, is either too short acclimation or your hermit crabs. And yes you should remove any dead thing from your tank if you can. But put the shells back in after they are all cleaned out. Might give your hermit another target instead of your live snails.

[MrKrispy]

I had a snail that didn't move for three days, took it out and it smelled like arse. So in to the trash it went. LAtely I had a astrea that hadn't moved in three days, I tapped it, a little later I saw it moving up the glass. Maybe it was meditating.

[koj11]

What was your acclimation technique? How long has your tank been set up? What kinds and how much algae do you currently have?

[newnano]

There was no acclimation technique. The guy at my LFS told me I could drop them right in, so that's what I did.

[caja]

Originally posted by newnano

There was no acclimation technique. The guy at my LFS told me I could drop them right in, so that's what I did.

Which is exactly why they are dying. Lesson #1...never listen to the LFS employee. Snails are highly sensitive to salinity and pH changes and need a long acclimation.

[Jeff D2]

Three main reasons snails die.

 

#1 Not acclimated correctly

 

#2 Salinity to low, get sg. up to 1.025

 

#3 Hungry Hermit Crabs, or crabs needing a bigger shell to grow into. Always keep extra shells of differnt sizes for your Hermits to use, will keep the snail death down some.

 

hth

 

Jeff

[UNCCwill]

how do you acclimate a snail?, mine all died today all of a sudden, could it be an ammonia spike from moving my live rock last night?

[397honda]

I acclimate my snails like I would a fish, for at least a hour.

[NanoAmyDee]

Definitely acclimate anything alive that goes into your tank. My LFS guy told me that crabs and snails could be dropped in too when I started a few years ago and I lost all of them but one. ( a freakish turbo that refused to stay in the tank) Now everything gets an hour long acclimation with bits of tank water being added every 15 minutes. I also never add water from a LFS into the tank. I know some people believe in it, but I have had tanks crash from bad water from the LFS.

 

my $0.02.

[Caesar]

newnano,

 

The best thing to do is to ask your LFS what they keep their SG at too determined how long you would have to acclimate. You may want to acclimate for more than just one hour if the SG difference is more than .004

 

Regards,

Caesar

[trmiv]

I acclimated my nassarius for like 3 hours on a drip, because of the large salinity difference. My astreas I acclimated for maybe 45 minutes, they had a large difference too. All five astreas are still going strong after 2 weeks. My nassarius? Who knows, I see a few things sticking up out of the sand, and I see a couple of them at night, but I'm unsure if they are all still alive.

 

I'm not sure about the whole, snails who bury themselves thing. What if these little buggers die in the sand, and you have no clue they died? Do I send out a search party to make sure?