Can't keep snails!!

[Reef_Monkey]

Okay real quick, does anybody know why I can't keep snails alive?
I killed about 30 snails and 2 sally light-foots. The sally's just looked like they froze up and died; got all stiff...and the snails live for about a day then die...the lady at the LFS said she's thinks it's cuz of the iron. But you can't test for that...anybody have any ideas? I mean as soon as i put them in, my Clarkii goes and trys to eat them, but he does that with everything. I don't think he's kill' em.
ANY SUGGESTIONS :?:

P.S. I haven't been using R/O water, just tap with Prime.
(My R/O unit isn't hooked up yet)

 

[sorenb]

It's probably not iron. I've had 10 Astreas for a year using tap water with a lot of rust in it. (Now the rust is clogging my R/O prefilter instead)

My snails turned out to be extremely sensitive to iodine though (killed them).

There are test kits available for iron.

Please post your tank parameters/dosing scheme etc.

Best regards

s

 

[liquid]

What's your salinity, temperature, nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, alkalinity, pH, etc?

Shane

 

[mountainbiker619]

Are you pinching your snails also?..LOL

 

[Hal1]

What's your acclimation technique? Inverts need several hours of acclimation.

 

[Anonymous]

Actually, I was wondering if he's keeping 'em with his pinche puffer! But the puffy would eat 'em up, not leave 'em all stiff and dead.

Sure sounds like an issue with osmo-regulation to me. You didn't mention iodine, but truthfully, if doing regular water changes that shouldn't be such a big issue. Actually, rereading your post, I'm almost positive it's an issue with acclimation and osmosis. You need to be absolutely certain of your salinity/specific gravity, and acclimate them very slowly. See kparton's recent thread on sea star troubles.

 

[kparton]

I was going to post the same thing seamaiden. I used to have a hard time keeping my snails alive, but I greatly increased the amount of time I acclimated them and I am doing much better.

As an update, my serpent stars seem to be doing really well and I see them moving around occasionally during the day and out some at night. Definitely doing better than my last try with them.

 

[Anonymous]

Excellent! I'm glad to hear it, kp.

 

[liquid]

Not to stir the pot or anything, but snails are shipped dry to LFS'. They're baggied up w/ plenty of air and just enough water to keep them moist (maybe an oz or so?) and that's it. Farmertodd had a LFS for 2-3 yrs and never once got snails bagged in more water than that. I've also heard similar from other LFS'. :shrug:

Shane

 

[Anonymous]

This is true. Tends to keep them from polluting their own water, and most can seal themselves up pretty well (the ones that I handled at least), not to mention the savings in shipping costs. And crawdads are shipping in moistened styro peanuts, too.

 

[kparton]

Not to stir the pot or anything, but snails are shipped dry to LFS'. They're baggied up w/ plenty of air and just enough water to keep them moist (maybe an oz or so?) and that's it. Farmertodd had a LFS for 2-3 yrs and never once got snails bagged in more water than that. I've also heard similar from other LFS'. :shrug:

Shane

I had heard that before. How do the snails that come this way to LFS's fare? I didn't know if it was one of those things that was so cheap, you could afford to lose the snails more than you could afford to pay for shipping bags of water. I know some survive and are sold, I just wonder how many.

 

[liquid]

Honestly, Todd just floated the snails to temperature acclimate them and then threw them in. Had near 100% survival rate. Go figure that one out. :shrug: I'm almost wondering if you take them home dry like that instead of in a bunch of water if you wouldn't have a better survivability rate? But then again they may need to be in this 'dry' situation for a day or so before this actually works. After learning that they ship them dry, that's how I've asked the LFS' to package them up for me. They look at me like I'm screwy.

(Ok, I really am, but that's beside the point).

Shane

 

[Anonymous]

I used to have a problem keeping snails alive, but It was after I medicated my tank with cupramin. Snails are extremly sensitive to copper as well.

 

[Reef_Monkey]

My perimeters are fine as far as the nitrites, nitrates, ammonia, ph, temp,SG.

I tested for all that when they started dying. I only acclimate them for like an hour. I heard half of people just throw them in. And I have seen my puffer go after them, get them in his mouth and shake them around. But Even ones I threw in my overflow box still died. I think it's my water, but on the same page I think it's something else. Should I just acclimate them longer? I don't think that's it though, but it's a start.

 

[liquid]

So:

Nitrate = 0
Nitrite = 0
Ammonia = 0
SG = 1.024-1.026
pH = 7.8 - 8.3
Ca = 380 - 420 ppm
Alk = 8-10 dKH

Is that what your parameters are?

Shane

 

[ElMonoCalvo]

Good info on snails but how crabs? I've recently lost 2 emerald crabs out of the blue. My water parameters fall within acceptable ranges and none of my other fish/inverts/corals seem to be affected by anything. One thing I did notice about the time they kicked was that my water purifier filter had a lot of rust in it. I'm wondering if the higher iron concentration in the water, as posed in the original post, could be the culprit? I have since changed the filter and really want to replace these guys as they did a monster job keeping my LR algae free.

 

[Anonymous]

supa, ALL invertebrates are extremely sensitive to copper.

 

[Anonymous]

Also, DON'T medicate the display tank.. Shane, are you offering up reasonable parameters, or did you get a hold of his parameters? I think many would agree that 7.8 is definitely on the low side, and the range between 7.8-8.3 (I'd find as high as 8.4 acceptable) is a huge swing if he's experiencing that.

<sm, a little confoosed>

 

[Anonymous]

supa, ALL invertebrates are extremely sensitive to copper.

Yep I know that now. I was just saying for snails sake

 

[Anonymous]

Snails do not need such long acclimation times as posted here. Unless something is REALLY wrong with your water, or that of the store you bought them at, a 10 minute float for temperature is plenty.
As far as salinity goes, the difference in osmotic pressure between say 1.020 and 1.026 is minimal at best. You're not going to shock them in that regard.
A several hour acclimation for snails is ludicrous unless water parameters are wacked.


Jim