My Snails Dont Last.

Ninja Spear

Ninja Spear

Bloodsail Admiral
For the Last 4 months it Seems Like all the snails I Purchase for my tank have Died. I have had my water checked and everything seems to be fine. For the Life of Me I cannot Understand why they are turning Up dead. I do have one Hermit Crab, I think he is a Blue footed one. I was told that they will not eat the snails.

Any Suggestions on what I can check to Find out why my snails are Dieing. It takes them about 2-3 weeks then they Die.
 
First, blue legged hermits will kill snails. This is because crabs are generally evil.

What kind of snails are you losing? If you suspect that the crab is killing them, my advice is to put some empty snail shells in your tank that are larger than your actual snails. The evil crab will then choose the bigger empty house rather than killing your CUC.
 
Just a thought...how are you acclimating them to your tank. If you're not doing it or doing it long enough, that will cause them to die off also.
 
Hermits are dangerous only when they get big. Don't give them bigger shells.
Inverts cannot handle high nitrates.
Did you test for copper in your water?
 
Wow Great Suggestions.

1. I am taking my Multimeter Home to check for a voltage leak. :zombie: I think that may be the problem.
I have a power head that i think may be the Problem. Let's hope. (it pumps a ton of water. More than I thought it would) even so if the voltage leak is the problem my Other critters are doing fine. I guess snails are the first to go in any case.

2. My Hermit Crab is a Sneaky lil Guy. I dont see him for a while then he is on top of a rock sunning his self. He has plenty of shells tho. I wont get anymore of them if they eat the snails.

3. If the Snails Die after a couple of weeks would that be because they were not acclimated correctly? In the past I have thrown stuff in my tank as soon as i got it home. They looked Shocked but ended up living for quite some time.
 
I would vote for starvation. IMO
Acclimation would affect them in the first day or two not 3 weeks later. How large are your Hermits? True hermits will go after snails sometimes, it depends how hungry and large they are.
 
Some of that is news to me Chris. Thanks! I usually only drip them for about 45 mins and that could be why I have lost a few too.
 
Ninja Spear said:
If the Snails Die after a couple of weeks would that be because they were not acclimated correctly? In the past I have thrown stuff in my tank as soon as i got it home. They looked Shocked but ended up living for quite some time.
Click to expand...


That would certainly do it.

Nobody can say which snails will be tough enough to handle rapid changes - and which snails would die. It's just better if you assume all of them are delicate and treat them accordingly.

3hrs minimum acclimation for inverts. 5 or 6hrs would be better. If you could manage to keep the temp stable - a 24-36hr acclimation would be the absolute best IMO - but who has the time for that?

I recently bought a whole bunch of snails from the LFS. 90% of them died - despite my efforts at long acclimation periods floating the bags in the tanks. I did everything right and my water is okay.

I can only assume they were treated poorly when they arrived at the LFS. I've seen employees at other stores take entire bags of snails and crabs - and just dump them into the tanks without any acclimation. :grumble: I have to assume most/all LFS employees are just as ignorant about the care and treatment of these animals.

Unfortunately - we never know how these animals were treated BEFORE we buy them and take them home. You can still do everything right and have massive die off - as I did.
 
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My hermit is small, very small. And he is a solo Crab.

All my Snails are dead So i dont think the new ones would Starve. I am not saying you guys are wrong. I have had snails for years and then they started Dropping off.

I will do some test tonight and get back to you tommorow.
 
Copper maybe? Did you get some bad water, use any meds or supplements, or make any changes that could have leached copper into your system?
 
mng777777 said:
I hope they made it up to you Chris! That is terrible.
Click to expand...


pfft I didn't even tell them about all the dead snails. What good would it do? They give me more snails that die in my aquarium and rot to create nitrates? :grumble: Ya can't ever find them all or get them all out. Some of them die behind the rock wall and I'm not taking that apart for nuthin'..............

If the inverts were fine - and you have a sudden problem - I'd be looking for stray voltage too. I found a powerhead in my tank that was giving off voltage - that was about a year ago. Took it out and tossed it in the trash. I figured it out because every time I put my hand in the tank I'd get a tiny shock. :shock: Knew something was up.

RO unit failure? If the carbon filters in the RO unit have failed that would ruin the RO membrane because it's being exposed to chlorine. Once thats ruined - you could get any number of heavy metals or other contaminants in the water.
 
Every time I buy a bunch of snails, they climb on the rocks, or up the glass than fall off. They land on their backs and can't flip over and die.
 

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