Why would all my snails die?

[tanglover]

I want to order some snails and put them in my tank. I started my tank back in Oct. 2003 and in December I put about 10 snails from my lfs in the tank. With in a week all 10 were dead. I had a hippo tang and 2 black perculas in the tank. When the snails died the water appeared to be ok to me. ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0, salinity 1.024, ph 8.4.....today my water in in the same situation with the nitrate being about .30 (I am slowly getting that down)

Would it be ok to add some more snails? What did I do wrong the first time. btw snails from the same lfs were added to my 50gal and are doing fine.

 

[NaH2O]

Hmmm....is it possible that you have a nasty hitchhiker in there? The other thoughts I have are poor acclimation and copper - was the tank ever treated with anything containing copper?

 

[Alice]

What kind of snails were they? Some that come in are temperate species and don't do well in our tanks.

 

[Johnny]

Just something that happened to me--- I had a problem keeping snails alive for a some time after doing some work on my tank, I had dropped a large piece of live rock on my heater (titanium submersable) and knocked back the rubber cap on the end of the heater shaft. This caused some voltage to leak into my tank. The stray voltage was killing all the small life in the tank but was not high enough to kill fish.

 

[tanglover]

I have never used any copper in the tank , and i am not really sure what kind of snails they were. Their shells were kinda pink but mostly white. Have any of ya'll had any experiance with the bumble bee snails? are they pretty harty?

 

[jasontatro]

I have had terrible luck with astreas and trochus. Mostly due to my hermits I'm sure. My bumblebees have done great and I think I have only lost one.

I would probably look at acclimation. In my experience, many snails don't do well if poorly acclimated.

 

[tanglover]

thanks, i don't really remember how well i acclimated them. i'am assuming that i did it fairly well b/c i did tons of reading before i even got a tank, but who knows. i will try it again and see how that goes. i just wanted to make sure i did'nt need any strange substance or test kit that i did'nt know about.

 

[Ed Hahn]

lots of times people will use egg crate and place snails on that and let them move into water by themself. Snails are more sensitive to nitrates and salinity changes. Sometimes the snails do not die imediately after the change in salinity or nitrates. I have heard sometimes it may take a week for snails to die after being shocked by change. I have been told repeatedly that when your nitrates are high the first things that it effects are your snails, crabs, etc. You may want to see what salinity was in tanks that snails, crabs, shrimp were in...and slowly acclimate them to your salinity. I hope this helps...good luck...Ed

 

[Ed Hahn]

I acclimated my snails from reeftopia and had a 100 percent success rate by using egg crate. I hope this helps you too.

 

[jesshimom]

Speaking of hitchhikers.... I have lost two small fish, like gone one morning & no signs of any remains... Well, this weekend I saw a very pretty pinkish & grey with kind of a grey bar design crab looking at me out of a large hole! He was quite pretty; and I haven't seen it since. He was killing a hermit crab also in the hole. Any ideas as to what kind? I don't want to try to find him because I probably wouldn't be successful finding him but i don't want him munching more fish. Any thoughts anyone?

 

[tanglover]

thanks, i will try the egg crate thing and hope it works, making sure my tank if in good shape will help as well.

 

[fishermann]

tanglover Is this the tank you were putting all these chems in?

 

[NaH2O]

I saw a very pretty pinkish & grey with kind of a grey bar design crab looking at me out of a large hole! He was quite pretty; and I haven't seen it since. He was killing a hermit crab also in the hole. Any ideas as to what kind?

IDing crabs can be tricky. There are so many different kinds, but if it is the kind that you caught killing livestock, then it would be wise to get it out. You can try and set a trap for it or take the rock out and flush it. Unless you don't mind it in your tank....

 

[tanglover]

actully yes, when i added the snails in dec. i had not put anything in the tank. then about a month ago i treated it with melafix for 7 days to no avail. after that with greenex (also did nothing for my ick) i have not been running carbon for a week as well as poly filters and 10% water changes twice a week. i was going to wait awhile before i added anything to the tank but i wanted to start reasearching now. why?

 

[Ed Hahn]

Jesshimom,
That kinda sounds like a mantis shrimp? Did you notice two little antenae looking at you?

 

[NaH2O]

Here's a link to Information on Mantis/Stomatopods

 

[Alice]

I've had snails come in shipped "dry" (just in a plastic-lined box filled with wet newspaper) and I attached them to the tank above the water line so they could move down and acclimate themselves. Kinda like sticking your toe in to test the water.

 

[fishermann]

tanglover what i was asking was did all these snails die during your treatment of your tank with these chems? or was it before any of these chems were put in the tank?

 

[tanglover]

they died long before the treatment began