my experience on empty shells

[eferna]

Anyway here I am wondering about my blu leg hermits killing my astrea snails and taking there shells, so off I goto my LFS and ask them if i can have some empty shells. The guy goes at the back and gets me a bag of empty shells and says that I can have them for free. Here I am all happy and stuff. I take them home and open the bag only to be in disgust. The smell was bad. I suspected that there was probably a dead snail in them and boy was I right.

Anyway what I decided to do was throw the shell that had the dead snail in it and put the rest ot the shells in hot water.

After a few hours I noticed that the water was really stinking. I decided to throw out the shells cause I dont want none of that in my nano.  If I probably put the shells in my tank they would have polluted the entire tank and destoyed everything.

Does anyone have any experience with this?

[Sahin]

The shells I get for free at my LFS are always clean and free of snails tissue.

 

They are always shells that had been previously occupied by a hermit that outgrew that shell.

 

I never had the problem you describe.

 

The shells you were given were dead snails.

And hadnt been previously occupied by hermits or else they would have been cleaned of all decaying snail tissue.

[eferna]

so what if i  boil them would that kill off everything?

[Sahin]

Boil them would help.  But you need to remove the snail tissue inside, so go ahead and boil them and then try to take out the inside stuff with a tooth pick or something.

 

Its the stuff inside rotting that causing the smell.

 

I would also check the tank parameters.  If they were enough to make the tank water smell then you might have put a lot of decaying material into the tank.

Test and then carry out a small water change if necessary.

[eferna]

you know what. I did not put them into a tank. I just put them in a bucket cause i did not want to put them in the tank cause of the smell.

my motto is:

If it smells dead, dont put it in.

[Sahin]

Oh goody.  Thats very good then.

Now why did I assume you put it into the tank?

Silly me!

[Kapelakin]

What I used to do (yes, I am a snail killer!) is give the shell a good boiling, then let it set outside for a month or so.  Since we're going into summer this is a good time to do it.  That's how they get those pretty shells you see for sale in tourist shops all clean-rowboats full of shells sitting on the beaches in Mexico.  

[HuBu]

i never had the problem you described. but i have notice that my scarlet hermit has been following this big snail around and he would flip the snail and try to eat it or take its shells. when i start on the 29 gal tank. i dont think ill be getting any hermits. ill probably go all snails or all hermits. does anyone know which one would be better. i hate that hermit. since i m leaving for the week and dont want to come back with all my snails dead thanks to him, i put him in the HOB filter for the week.

[Kapelakin]

I used to have lefthanded hermits and they never bothered the snails.  The blue legs and sometimes the scarlets are pretty aggressive.  I swore I'd never own another blue-leg after watching one bail off an 8" high rock onto the back of another hermit that was on the sand in order to attack him (well, it was cool to watch, but, y'know..)

 

I have microhermits from IPSF now, and they seem good so far.  If I was going to choose between snails and hermits, I"d go with just snails.

 

HTH

[Guest AbSoluTc]

As a previous owner of both - I will never own red or blue leg hermits again.  They are the laziess mofos that I have ever had!  Just slouching around doing nothing but eating and sun bathing.

 

With my 28, all I have now are snails.  The 2 emeralds I put in, died within a week.  I have no clue.  I do have a mix of snails.  Turbos, astrea, and some that have no shell and look like slugs.  Those are my favorite as they reproduce like madd.  They are the "night crew".  Coming out at lights off attacking any algae that looms.  The glass, rocks, sandbed.  Its just amazing!

[fishymissy]

I live in Florida, and when we go collecting shells, once in awhile you will find one that still has some meat in it. One of the best things to do is put the shell outside on top of an ant hill. The ants will clean out every last scrap of meat. Then after a day or two, or when you notice no ants in the shell, bring it inside and boil it.