my snails are dying

[poolshark181]

my turbo snails are dying and i have no idea why. do stars eat them? i noticed there were alot of stars hanging out inside the shell when i lifted them. should i leave the shell in or take it out? they stink like crazy.

the culprit? what is it?
there is a TON of these things in my tank. whenever i feed, they crawl out of everywhere.

 

[bjohanson1234]

I have had experience with turbo snails and have noticed that they have a tendency to fall onto their backs and cant get righted. If they are on their backs for too long, they will die. I would guess that the stars are doing thier job and just cleaning up the decaying snail. What are your tank parameters?

Im sure that someone else here would have more insite into what is happening to your snails

Brian

 

[bobby]

Thats a mini brittle star, and I dont think they could kill a snail. They're very good scavengers for your tank. I wish I had them in mine.

 

[poolshark181]

my most recent params from my 7/12 test date.

salinity 1.024
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 10-15ppm
phospate .05 ppm

also, you say they are mini brittles. do you mean to say they dont get bigger, or are they just babies? because i saw one that was brown and was way bigger than the one in the picture that was surrounding a turbo, im not sure if it was dead or not yet, but when i picked it up, the star dashed back under the overhang, and the snail was pretty much gone.

 

[Bifferwine]

I agree that it's probably not the stars killing the snails, but just eating their bodies after they die. I also agree that they might be falling on their backs and not being able to get up. Hawks has a snail stick that he uses to flip them over again when that happens ;).

Snails are also extra sensitive to water parameters and sometimes just seem to die for no apparent reason.

 

[reeffreak]

I agree with everyone that its not the stars.They could of died from being upside down but my guess is starvation.Diatoms won't sustain them,they need hair algae or other macro algae to survive.If you can rule out starvation then run a check on your parameters.

 

[yote]

Im gonna agree with every body else here.
From the looks of your rock,You may be starving your snails.The pic looks pretty algae free to me.