Dead snails

[mjs]

Does anyone know of a reason for snails to die off suddenly?
I have gone thru two different batches of turbos.
They acclimate fine, last about a week, then one by one fall to the bottom of the tank. The body will be in the shell, still alive. I will put them back upright, but in the next day or so, the body is gone as well.

It is a very established tank, 5 years.
100 gallon, 100 lbs live rock
78 degrees, 1.023, 8.2 ph, 0 am, low nitrates, 0 phos, cal 450
Large maroon clown, a few anthias, firefish, cardinal, bassett, a few chromis,tang, line wrasse.
I also have a (getting large)coral banded shrimp
no starfish, no hermits

 

[matts125]

with the turbos when they fall on their back they are stuck you have to rescue them. they cannot turn themselves back over so when you say they are on their back then a few days later they are dead they probably starved to death..
also these snails will not tolerate high nitrates. anything over 20 is dangerous to them...

Matt

 

[twilliard]

odd very odd for a tank thats 5 years old.

What is your level of nitrates?

 

[ronj]

i think it is astrea snails that can't right themselves back up...i have a handful of turbo snails.. they fall on their backs all the time..they haven't ever died.. i've watched them turn themselves over.....i don't know what would be killing your snails though!! i would have guessed hermits, but you don't have any of those!! maybe you should keep an eye on that shrimp.. i have never heard of them attacking a snail, but you never know! if the body is gone, something has to be eating them..

 

[mjs]

nitrates are generally below 10.
that said, they start to creep up when the snails die behind the rocks.
still doesnt get above 20, and drops back down w a water change.

 

[ronj]

i have some turbo's that have been in some very harsh conditions...i doubt that it is your water parameters...the tank that i keep mine in...the heater will turn off sometimes..it will be lie 71-72 degrees, then other times , it will be 85 degrees..the salinity gets crazy..i never add topoff to the tank.. the salinity goes from 1.021-1.030...it gets extremely high!!!!i quit doing regular water changes on the tank(maybe once every 2 months)..there is no telling how high the nitrates and phosphates got in that tank....i recently started keeping it up and sparkling clean!!!. i actually just took it down and set it up as a qt tank last night!!! i have never lost a snail in that tank!!! i think they are pretty hardy critters....

 

[mjs]

so, do you think the coral shrimp might be getting at them?
i never heard of anything like that........
i have gone thru two batches of 15 in a month

 

[matts125]

I highly doubt that your shrimp is eating these snails....

 

[ronj]

that is strange!!! i have never heard of a coral bandit doing that either, but i am just trying to narrow it down....is there any chance you have a hitchhiker crab in there???? i am not saying that the water parameters are not the problem, but i am saying that i have seen them make it through very rough conditions before!!! did every single one of them die???? this is off subject, but what kind of tang do you have???

 

[syddakyd]

yo i have the same exact problem as you with my astreas. and its astreas that can not right themselves.

my snails died off one by one as well. can't figure out wtf happened. maybe a snail parasite????

 

[Fishead77]

Does anyone know of a reason for snails to die off suddenly?
I have gone thru two different batches of turbos.
They acclimate fine, last about a week, then one by one fall to the bottom of the tank. The body will be in the shell, still alive. I will put them back upright, but in the next day or so, the body is gone as well.

It is a very established tank, 5 years.
100 gallon, 100 lbs live rock
78 degrees, 1.023, 8.2 ph, 0 am, low nitrates, 0 phos, cal 450
Large maroon clown, a few anthias, firefish, cardinal, bassett, a few chromis,tang, line wrasse.
I also have a (getting large)coral banded shrimp
no starfish, no hermits

I had this problem as well. My nitrates were sky high (50ppm). I got rid of my pad filter (nitrate producer). Also upgraded my skimmer after using a to z nitrate lowering chemical. My nitrates are still around 10ppm but I haven't lost a snail for quite a while.

 

[mjs]

well, no solid answers, but thanks for the input.
the nitrates arent high, and its not all of them that die at once, its over time.
i did see a nassarius snail (i have 6 of them...which do not die) "smothering" one last night. If it was the water parameter, these would be effected too. I did some reading last night and it seems that they (nassarius) are very sensitive to water problems. So, someone in there is after them, and winning. couldnt find any answers to if the nassarius would eat flesh, or just deritus and algae

by the way its a hippo, nice size, great color

 

[Damsel13]

The same thing with the snails dying off has happened to me twice. Haven't formed an opinion as to why yet.

 

[prbhasson]

What type of basslett do you have. They are carnivores and if he is not getting enough food he may be enjoying the snails... Other than that not sure what else could be bothering them.. Good Luck in finding the culprit and keep us posted...

 

[adunn79]

I had the exact same issue in a three year old tank. I was told that it was the temp of the tank which varied during the day from 75 in the am to 80 when the lights went off. I finally just stopped adding snails. I have recently moved and set my tank up again and plan to add a chiller this spring to keep the temp at a comfortable 76.

I am hoping this helps. All other tank parameters were in line.

185 Gallon bow front tank with lots of healthy corals, clams, shirmp etc Just dead snails

 

[Zen Reeferer]

Were the snails from the same source? Have any of the snails survived? Are they from a LFS, (were they correctly acclimated at the LFS?) or were they shipped directly to you?
How long did you acclimate them, and how?
Ever use copper in that tank?

 

[NaH2O]

Were the snails from the same source? Have any of the snails survived? Are they from a LFS, (were they correctly acclimated at the LFS?) or were they shipped directly to you?
How long did you acclimate them, and how?
Ever use copper in that tank?

Zen Reeferer - I'm glad you are asking these questions, as I was about to ask the same. Are the snails from the same place? You may want to try a different vendor (if they were from the same place) and see if it makes a difference. How slowly did you acclimate them (one hour, several hours?)?