Snail On-The-Job Safety Question

[Marmot Man]

Yesterday afternoon I finally purchased a cleanup crew for my one month old 5G

Hex tank. Current inhabitants now include:

 

10lb Nature's Ocean Pseudo-Live Sand

7lb Marshall Islands Live Rock

2 Mexican Turbo Snails (Turbo fluctuosa)

3 Nassarius Snails (Narrarius sp.)

 

Within 10-15 minutes of introduction (after acclimation) the Nassarius had all

dug themselves into the sand bed and disappeared. I've seen them pop up and take

a look around periodically. But otherwise they pretty much stay hidden. That, as

I understand it, is to be expected.

 

The Mexican Turbos immediately began eatting up algae. Good deal. I realize that

they'll get too big eventually. My plan is to trade them for a `smaller model'

at the LFS when this occurs. I'll also do so if they begin knocking a lot of

stuff over.

 

I was hoping to get some Cerith sp. snails yesterday but the LFS doesn't have

any in right now. I'll add a couple of these guys when I can.

 

Now on to the worker safety question...

 

I get into the office this morning to find one of my Mexican Turbos down on the

sand bed in a `cove' between the live rock. It just sat there for a good hour.

While its `face' was down as usual, it wasn't moving. I thought I had read

somewhere that Astrea snails are only mobile on hard substrate and will die if

left on the sand. I gently picked up the snail and moved him to the glass where

he attached. He is definitely alive and is now chowing down again.

 

So my question is simple. Can Mexican Turbos move across sand without trouble?

Did I act rashly in moving the snail? Obviously no harm was done. People move

their snails all the time to target them at particular areas of rock. But I'm

just curious for future reference...

[onthefly]

I put ten turbos in my tank and within a month, all were dead! Parameters are all within excepted levels, except I run my tank at 1.018 SG. That being said, I've seen alot of peeps post snail problems like mine and here's the scenario:

 

1) Snail looks good for a day or two chowin' on anything green!

2) Snail looks a little lethargic

3) Snail starts "falling" off glass and rock

4) Snail dead in 2-3 days.

 

I kept picking them up and placing on the glass or rock, they'd eat again but I'd still see him on the sand. All the post that I've seen have been talking about turbos and many peeps said that snails need very slow acclimation (which I did not do!).

 

Oh, and to answer your question.......turbos move just fine on the sand!

 

I hope you're are just acting funny....good luck!

[Marmot Man]

Certainly hope that isn't what is about to happen to mine! But I guess I'll

just have to wait and see how they act over the next couple days. Acclimation

consisted of turning off the lights, floating the bag to equalize temperature,

and periodically adding small amounts of water from my tank to the bag to

equalize salinity. This was done over the course of about an hour, but I'd call

that `slow' - not `very slow'. So maybe it wasn't long enough...

 

My SG reads at 1.025 which is very close to what the LFS claimed to run in

their tanks. So hopefully the salinity change wasn't too much of a shocker.

 

Thanks for the info on their sand-skirting ability. Guess I'll just keep an

eye on them and see what happens.

[Crakeur]

turbos move fine on sand but they need those Help I've fallen and I can't get up buzzers.

[Marmot Man]

Thanks for the info Crakeur and `onthefly'. I won't be worried next time I see

a Mexican Turbo sunning itself on the beach.

 

Yesterday the two Turbos didn't move much. That made me very worried given the

info that `onthefly' had posted. But this morning when I came into work they had

definitely moved overnight and additional damage was done to the algae. Right

now one of them is on the glass slowly eating and the other is stuck firm to a

sheer face of the live rock. This later one doesn't appear to be moving, but it

is hard to tell. At least they are still sticky...

 

In an interesting (at least to me) development I found one of the Nassarius on

the glass this morning too. While I've read that these guys bury themselves in

the sand looking for detrius. This one appears to be happily sucking away on the

glass.

 

Are any (or all) of these snails nocturnal by any chance?

[onthefly]

I definitely should have read more before my "quick" acclimation of snails! It sounds like you did everything right (although some would have carried the acclimation out over several hours).

 

As for nocturnal vs. diurnal...........I think I saw my snail active all the time, but when the light went off they really "kicked it up a notch".

 

Like I said, keep them upright and if you start seeing one in particular falling off alot, get ready! He's probably on death door....