astrea snails...cause of death?

[jmz]

i just put in 5 astrea snails, and within 3 days 2 of them died. the others aren't very active either. the only other things i have in the tank are 2 cleaner shrimp.

any idea what the problem could be? how sensitive are astrea snails to water conditions? it looked to me that there was plenty of hair algae for them to graze on...so i'm pretty sure that food supply wasn't the problem.

any help would be appreciated. thanks.

[My Alife 7]

How well were they acclimated to the tank?

[jmz]

pretty well...had them in the bag for a good 20 minutes.

are astreas considered a hardy species? any other good hair algae grazing snails?

(i got the astreas because i heard that they can flip themselves over if they were to fall in the sand)

[linty]

I'm having the same problem.  I don't think they are being killed by anything else in the tank.

 

But just so you know, 20 minute in a bag is NOT good acclimatization.  Snails are quite sensitive to changes...

mine died even after being acclimatized over a 10 hour period in a seperate tank (just adding a bit more of my water every hour or so).  Salt water creatures (especially invertebrates) need for you to do that to adjust them to your specific water parameters, especially salinity.

 

Also, they can't flip themselves over...they are the abolute worst snails for that.  

[My Alife 7]

20 minutes...? I personally acclimate my fish and inverts from 45 min. to an hour... I don't know where you got that info but astreas are the exact opposite... they CAN'T flip themselves over if they fell into the sand.

[jmz]

so what are good, hardy snails to get?

how are turbo snails?

[Sahin]

I have two Astrea snails.  They are doing well.  They are really good cleaner too.

 

On the advice of my LFS, I acclimatised them over an hour.

 

Are you sure you dont have any crabs that could be killing these snails?  Crabs can come in crevices in live rock etc.

 

I saw a brown hairy crab just a few mins ago.  I dont know what it eats yet.

[eferna]

Maybe you could have just got a batch of sick snails from the LFS.

[My Alife 7]

Besides the acclimating, maybe there's a creature or something in your LR like Sahin said that comes out at night maybe?

[jmz]

hmm...i have seen a small grayish/black crab in the rocks before.

could he be the cause? will all types of crabs go for snails?

i think i'll remove the crab.

[FamousGuy]

astreas are pathetic, i had one big turbo that cleared up in two days what 4 astreas couldnt do in a couple of weeks

[Toyfreek]

Snails are very delicate when it comes to salinity swings they should be acclimated for at least 2 hours prior to putting them into the tank for best survival. I have done it quicker and they lived but i think I was lucky.

Toy

[byrself]

the most important step in the acclimation process imo is the adding tank water to bag water, waiting fifteen minutes, then pour out about half the water, add half parts tank water, at least twice, preferably longer.  me personally, i usually just take them out the bag and put them straight in the tank.  only lost one large snail, but i think it was sickly.  it was old in my tank, and didn't move for a couple weeks, then just died.  other than that, i have had no probs with them.  must be rogue critter doing the damage, or either you are changing salinity too fast for them.  make sure your water changes match salinity.  also, have you considered the possibility of any copper contamination?  is your source water reliable?  just a thought.  if you had copper, i think the snails would be the first to go.