Dead snails

[keisersosei]

Two months ago I had about 40 turbo snails. Now I'm down to about 10. It is typical for them to die quickly? I have noticed them on their backs before but didn't think anything of it. A couple of days later they are still there, dead. Is it possible that they fell off of the glass, landed on their backs, and couldn't turn over so starved to death?
Water parameters:
Ammonia - 0
Nitrate - <10
Nitrite - 0
pH - 8.3

 

[goober]

when you have snails you should turn them over when they fall off the glass. What kind of fish do you have? could the fish have eaten them? There also might be a lack of food for them

 

[keisersosei]

I have one clownfish. There is definitely not a lack of food; there is algae all over the glass and I have a diatom bloom.

 

[carrie1429]

Sometimes when the snails fall they cannot upright themselves and so a pretador comes and eats them if not turned over. Many times I have had bristle worms get to the snails before I can turn them over.

 

[byrself]

are you positive you don't have any copper in your water? even trace amounts can kill inverts. just a thought..

 

[keisersosei]

No, I'm not sure. That is one test kit I have planned on getting soon. But I do have a coral banded shrimp, starfish, horseshoe crabs, conchs, and a couple of small hermits. They are all fine. I would assume that if anything was going to die from copper it would be the shrimp or star.

 

[byrself]

are you acclimating the snails at all? they can be sensitive to salinity swings also.

 

[jason weber]

i had copper in my tank. and it was killing the snails and not my cleaner shrimp or any of my hermit crabs or emerald crabs.

 

[keisersosei]

Yes, I have been acclimating the same as the fish I have bought, following the SWF instructions exactly. I did a 20% water change the other day and increased the salinity a bit, by about .003. I haven't been turning them over when they are upside down. I thought that they could do it themselves but obviously not. It seems like that's the best answer.

 

[keisersosei]

Thanks, Jason for that first-hand knowledge. I am about to buy a test kit. Copper doesn't affect fish?

 

[jason weber]

it did not affect mine.

 

[ed r]

"increased the salinity a bit, by about .003."
Are you talking about specific gravity? Like a change from 1.021 to 1.024? If so, that is large change. I hope you took a day or too for the change. If the salinity is a true ppm reading around 33 or 34, I have never seen anything give those numbers to three decimal places. You would like to have the specific gravity around 1.025, but make all changes gradually. Often sudden changes are worse than bad conditions.

 

[keisersosei]

I didn't realize that was such a large change. Thank you. I did it over several hours but not a whole day. It's a good thing I'm making these mistakes before I have lots of fish and corals.

 

[mouie2003]

i've found the best way to acclimate my snails is to let them adhere right above the water surface on the glass and let them acclimate themselves. Haven't lost a snail to acclimation since i started this method.