Astrea Snails Dying Wtf

[syddakyd]

ok fully cycled month and a half old tank 55g 25 astreas. 3 died this week. water parameters correct salinity and temp as well


plenty of algae to eat


wtf. i really dont care about them they cost a dollar each but they are an indicator something is wrong and i hope to "god" a snail dosn't die behind the rock where i can't see it and screw up my tank

 

[shallowreef]

Well i don't know if these snails are the ones i am going to mention but certain snails have a very short life span. I forget the name of them but i'm sure somebody will chime in with an idea.

Good Luck

 

[Brenden]

How long ago did you add them (before death). How did you acclimate? What is the salinity? I assume by saying parameters are correct everything is "0" (NH3, NO2, NO3)

 

[syddakyd]

but even then, for 3 to just suddenly die? and one looks like its foot is turning brown and weird.

i added the snails less then 2 weeks ago. i acclimated with the bag (its lfs thats private owned and his water is much better then mine im sure) by slowly letting in water over a period of say 1/2 hour after the temp was already the same as the surrounding water

and yes @ parameters. salinit is 1.024 and ph is 8.2-8.3

 

[james734]

i acclimated with the bag (its lfs thats private owned and his water is much better then mine im sure) by slowly letting in water over a period of say 1/2 hour after the temp was already the same as the surrounding water

FYI: Never put LFS water in your tank. Who knows what other nasties might come along with it. I'm sure his water params are great but what else might be in the water? Some LFS run Copper in the Fish only tanks. Probably not a problem with the snails. But in general I say this is NO, NO.. JMHO.

 

[ronj]

do you have any hermit crabs????? snails make a good snack for them and they also kill snails to get a new , bigger shell!!!! also, astrea snails can fall over and not be able flip themselves over....they can lay there and just die!!

 

[twilliard]

JMO
I learned the first time I added snails acclimation is the key.
What you are describing sounds like an acclimation issue.
If you acclimated for 2 hours you are good. Put them in too fast and they will die one by one.

I am no expert but I had the same issue on my first tank.

Oh and you will find information that these snails you will find are harvested in cooler waters, so in turn we slowly cook them.

 

[ronj]

i acclimated mine for about 5 minutes..i have never lost one, besides the small ones that the hermits attacked...all of my large ones are alive

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Snails? Acclimation? Really? Ever look at the rocks the collectors pick these guys off of? The snails cover the exposed rocks and in the hot evaporating tide pools. Rain or baking shine, they munch away on the algae. I doubt that short acclimation could be the cause of their demise, but what the heck do I know. Do all the shells end up in one spot? I suspect a predator is bothering them. Crab, aggressive goby, hungry angel, starfish...

 

[Krish]

Snails? Acclimation? Really? Ever look at the rocks the collectors pick these guys off of? The snails cover the exposed rocks and in the hot evaporating tide pools. Rain or baking shine, they munch away on the algae. I doubt that short acclimation could be the cause of their demise, but what the heck do I know. Do all the shells end up in one spot? I suspect a predator is bothering them. Crab, aggressive goby, hungry angel, starfish...

I'm with you Mike. I get my snails out of tidepools and sometimes there isn't even water there and I just pop them in my tank and they do just fine. Not sure if it is because they are more hardy being straight from the wild, but even today, I got some zoanthids that were in a puddle that felt like 200F and they are all opened up in my tank now and I didn't acclimate them The salinity from evaporation in low tide pools and temp should be enough to kill them, but they are a lot hardier than people think I guess...Either that or it could be though that the temp doesn't shoot straight through the roof instantaneously as well as the salinity why they survive in such extreme conditions, but I couldn't say. All I know is mine have always done fine without acclimating them. I wouldn't suggest anyone else doing it because I do it and it works for me. I know the preferred way is acclimation, but that's a different story...If you guys only knew :shock:

Sorry to hear about your losses man...I was thinking it could be hermits killing them to take over their shells, but seeing they are still in the shells makes me think otherwise. Hope you find the problem

 

[jsmkmavity]

some are collected in cooler waters like twilliard said and are not able to adapt to higher reef tank temps like 82-84. look for a worm with legs only and no bristles a while after all lites are off including the house lites. use a dim flashlite and look under and in between the rocks. they are quick to retreat so dont shine a light directly where you are looking.

 

[Meche]

what about Cu? Are snails sensitive to that?

 

[burning2nd]

i dont think looseing 3 snails outta 30 is that bad.

 

[btuck]

25 snails in a 55 sounds like too many. Just because there is algae for them to eat doesn't mean that is what they want to eat.

I believe Coral Magazine did an article on hermit crabs in which they showed that many people keep too many crabs in their aquariums. Too many crabs and too little space and food=aggression and starvation and death.

Perhaps this is what has happened in your tank.

Sorry just one more thing. To state that you don't care if they die because they only cost a dollar seems to represent yet another problem but that's JMO

 

[burning2nd]

ya, thats probly true, but the tank will staitin it self out with numbers sooner or later.

i have about 32 total in a 30

 

[syddakyd]

To state that you don't care if they die because they only cost a dollar seems to represent yet another problem but that's JMO

yea, i don't care for snails. they are my clean up crew.

 

[burning2nd]

I mean i got my clean up crew named. there like the star of the show, we got brown bob, herb, sockie, fluffie, sucker, stain, and streak

the rest havent reported to command for briefing

 

[syddakyd]

lmao wtf???

 

[burning2nd]

lol


ever see the back of a dollar bill........... ON weed man!


red team go red team go