Zebra Turbo snails turning upside down

[NC2WA]

I purchased 40 zebra turbo snails and noticed this morning a majority (30) of them were turned on their back on the sandbed. they are all alive but just will not adhere to rock or the sides of the tank..I do know my phosphate level is high (.011) and have some phosban I am treating the tank with..I am also using carbon to filter the water..both media bags for phosban and carbon in the chambers of my sump.

My rock does have hair algae and some bryopsis on it. (I dont think this should be an issue, but trying to give as much info as possible).

the other water parameters are ammonia, nitrates, nitrites are zero. All test kits are Salifert.

I have a rose anenome, a wall hammer, and 3 carpenter wrasses that are all doing FINE.

any idea what will cause snails to turn over and NOT want to stick to any surface area?? I have never seen this behavior and quite puzzled by it.

Kirk

 

[steven11]

are your wrasses turning them over? That is the only thing that i can think of.

 

[EZReefer]

I purchased 40 zebra turbo snails and noticed this morning a majority (30) of them were turned on their back on the sandbed. they are all alive but just will not adhere to rock or the sides of the tank..I do know my phosphate level is high (.011) and have some phosban I am treating the tank with..I am also using carbon to filter the water..both media bags for phosban and carbon in the chambers of my sump.

My rock does have hair algae and some bryopsis on it. (I dont think this should be an issue, but trying to give as much info as possible).

the other water parameters are ammonia, nitrates, nitrites are zero. All test kits are Salifert.

I have a rose anenome, a wall hammer, and 3 carpenter wrasses that are all doing FINE.

any idea what will cause snails to turn over and NOT want to stick to any surface area?? I have never seen this behavior and quite puzzled by it.

Kirk

I have the same problem with pyramid snails, it turns into an all you can eat buffet for my hermit crabs when they fall off the rocks

 

[charlesr1958]

Hopefully it is due to their simply not having acclimated to the new water parameters of your tank yet. Phosphates can also stress them as well. One other possibility is the magnesium level. Inverts such as snails, worms, shrimp and so on are very sensative to magnesium and in fact, I use a liquid aquarium magnesium supplement to knock out (sedate and/or kill) invert specimens for photographing, study and specimen preservation. Given that many of the salt mixes now contain good amounts of magnesium, that alone could be the cause of many mysterious problems noted with such inverts.

Chuck

 

[NC2WA]

thanks chuck...i think this may be it..

my Mg level was raised to kill bryopsis..the last I checked it was 1600, but have done several water changes since my last reading..let me check again and post the results..

 

[NC2WA]

Ok, just confirmed with a Mg Elost test kit, my Mg level is 1600. I guess a couple of water changes are in order to lower it to an acceptable range. I had heard snails dying or being lethargic around 1800, but it look like 1600 for these guys.

I do have a 37 gallon tank up and running, that I could transfer for them to until my Mg level is lowered; does this sound like a good game plan.

I assume high levels of Mg will eventually kill the snails???

 

[kirkland]

We purchased 6 regular turbo snails and for the first 3 months, we would find one upside down almost every day. We used our long tongs to flip them over. As time went on, they would be on their back in a place we couldn't reach or see & we have 2 turbo snails left. I haven't seen either of them upside down in over 2 months so maybe they finally adjusted or learned? We're not going to repurchase turbos since they aren't made for a reef tank.

 

[NC2WA]

my tank is not a reef tank and I do not have ANY crabs..appears the heater in the 37g was turned down...it is a cold 68 degrees..once I get the tank up to my main tank temp (77 degrees) I will move them over..I will work on lower the Mg level tomorrow..need to fill the mixing vat with RO water.

 

[NC2WA]

well, I moved 5 snails over last nite to another tank and they were OK this morning..so I just moved over the rest of the snails that were upside down. I have close to 30 snails in the tank...will take several water changes to get Mg levels down..I dont have the hardware to change 100 gallons at a time.

 

[charlesr1958]

I'm sure once you get the magnesium levels back down to NSW levels the snails will fully recover and be fine, at least I hope so.

Chuck

 

[NC2WA]

well, all of the 30 snails I moved over to the holding tank seem to have adjusted nicely. they are clumped together, on powerheads, etc... it appears the Mg level had something to do with the snails turning over..

 

[Bricky]

How are the snails looking? I've heard of tanks with really high Mg (1800 +) killing snails, but not at 1600. I'm currently at 1500-1600 and my snails have been doing fine for quite some time now (easily two months).

 

[NC2WA]

i have move all of the snails to a 37g tank and are doing well..I have about 5-7 in the main tank that seem to be OK..

this is what puzzles me..I didnt think 1600 would be something to worry about...

On another note, I got a Elos PO4 test kit and Phosban in the mail yesterday and tested my water..it reads 0..I was shocked as I was expecting a little level of PO4..

I'm doing a 60g WC tomorrow anyway as I am getting a blue face angel and yellow eye tang delivered on tuesday..

Kirk