It's still happening!!!!
- Thread starter wrassecal
- Start date
S
simm
Guest
Well IMO Wrassecal has nothing eating her snails in her opinion. As mine is the same way. I have no brittle stars in my reef. No hermits and no crabs. So personaly can say nothing is eating them.
chinnyr
Member
I recently experienced a snail dieoff.About a third of my 15 or so turbos croaked.Funny thing is that they were the smaller ones.Also I had tried to introduce some bumble bee snails,and the blueleg hermits made use of them within the hour.I even have lots of empty shells in the tank for them to swap out.Guess the bumble bee shells came with a free meal!As for my turbos...I suspect my hawkfish.He's been a real pain.Killed my peppermint shrimp,emerald crabs,hitch hiker crabs,and keeps my watchman goby constantly hiding.Maybe there is some sort of mystery tubo snail virus going around.
wrassecal
Active Member
Geez guys, I know I said misery loves company but this is getting to be a "dying snail" party.
At least I'm not the only one this happens to. And it is my really big turbos that have lasted. Guess I'll just keep feeding the tank snails. Knock on wood, I haven't lost any nassarius or cerith though.
Ophiura - I've been to your website and know you are now the resident expert on stars. Nice to have you here. I have a reddish star. I don't really know if it would be called a serpent or a brittle but just the common one with legs that look like earth worms (at least to me)they do have little softish "brittles" on them. I feed the star plankton pellets and fresh cut up seafood that I feed everyone else. It's great fun to watch the star eat a pellet, it's body turns into a teepee for a while.
I really appreciate everyone's input
At least I'm not the only one this happens to. And it is my really big turbos that have lasted. Guess I'll just keep feeding the tank snails. Knock on wood, I haven't lost any nassarius or cerith though. Ophiura - I've been to your website and know you are now the resident expert on stars. Nice to have you here. I have a reddish star. I don't really know if it would be called a serpent or a brittle but just the common one with legs that look like earth worms (at least to me)they do have little softish "brittles" on them. I feed the star plankton pellets and fresh cut up seafood that I feed everyone else. It's great fun to watch the star eat a pellet, it's body turns into a teepee for a while.
I really appreciate everyone's input
S
simm
Guest
hehe Wrassecal looks like were gonna be having a slumber party trying to figure out whats going on with our tanks.
rsd
Member
Hey guys. Sorry it took this long for me to join the conversation. It's been a busy corporate season.
I may have an idea no-one else has mentioned.
I had a problem with turbo die-off. None would survive more than a month and I had lots of algea. I read/searched/and asked until a guy (the owner) at an lfs told me to look for a specific snail... a predator.
There are two steps the the cure:
1) He told be to one-by-one pull out my turbo snails... touch their foot so they close up completely. Then very carefully explore around the edge of that hard shell they protect themselves with. Look for anything that looks out of the ordinary. Like a piece of sand that may be stuck to their foot. If you find anything remove with tweezers and drop into fresh water. What you are looking for is a very small snail that when full grown looks like a small piece of rice.... but alot smaller. Some of the smaller ones look more like an oblong piece of sand. They burrow into the hard part of the foot to lay eggs/eat. The hole becomes infected and the snail dies shortly after.... or the eggs hatch and the young ones feed... the snail stresses/infected dies.
2) add a sand sifting star. The ones that look like what every person thinks of when you say star fish. Some lfs call 'em figi sand sifting stars. Yes they will clean out your sand bed of alot of good critters but they will also clean out the bad ones too. They can't/wont get the adults so you'll have to keep checking your snails daily for a couple weeks. The stress of being yanked out daily will kill afew too... but it's a price. You may also see when the starfish surfaces he will have a few of these snails (adults) trying to escape... they will be hung up on the edges of the stars legs. Great time to carefully remove them.
I did this almost daily for about 3 weeks. My snail poulation has stabalized and I have a normal turnover rate again (about 1 a month... damn hermit crabs) When I first started checking I'd find a predatory snail on every turbo I had. Then only once in a while. Now I look only if my star has surfaced.
****also these predators are impossible to remove from "soft footed snails" or the snails that don't have that hard door they close behind their foot. The up side is I very RARELY saw on burrowed into the soft footed snails.
I don't know the name of the pred. snail but this was my experience. I've also noticed that the poulation of my "baby turbo's" has increased dramatically. I currently have about 50 turbo's who are growing rapidly. 5 are almost as big as I buy at the store.
Good luck and happy hunting!
I may have an idea no-one else has mentioned.
I had a problem with turbo die-off. None would survive more than a month and I had lots of algea. I read/searched/and asked until a guy (the owner) at an lfs told me to look for a specific snail... a predator.
There are two steps the the cure:
1) He told be to one-by-one pull out my turbo snails... touch their foot so they close up completely. Then very carefully explore around the edge of that hard shell they protect themselves with. Look for anything that looks out of the ordinary. Like a piece of sand that may be stuck to their foot. If you find anything remove with tweezers and drop into fresh water. What you are looking for is a very small snail that when full grown looks like a small piece of rice.... but alot smaller. Some of the smaller ones look more like an oblong piece of sand. They burrow into the hard part of the foot to lay eggs/eat. The hole becomes infected and the snail dies shortly after.... or the eggs hatch and the young ones feed... the snail stresses/infected dies.
2) add a sand sifting star. The ones that look like what every person thinks of when you say star fish. Some lfs call 'em figi sand sifting stars. Yes they will clean out your sand bed of alot of good critters but they will also clean out the bad ones too. They can't/wont get the adults so you'll have to keep checking your snails daily for a couple weeks. The stress of being yanked out daily will kill afew too... but it's a price. You may also see when the starfish surfaces he will have a few of these snails (adults) trying to escape... they will be hung up on the edges of the stars legs. Great time to carefully remove them.
I did this almost daily for about 3 weeks. My snail poulation has stabalized and I have a normal turnover rate again (about 1 a month... damn hermit crabs) When I first started checking I'd find a predatory snail on every turbo I had. Then only once in a while. Now I look only if my star has surfaced.
****also these predators are impossible to remove from "soft footed snails" or the snails that don't have that hard door they close behind their foot. The up side is I very RARELY saw on burrowed into the soft footed snails.
I don't know the name of the pred. snail but this was my experience. I've also noticed that the poulation of my "baby turbo's" has increased dramatically. I currently have about 50 turbo's who are growing rapidly. 5 are almost as big as I buy at the store.
Good luck and happy hunting!
S
simm
Guest
Sand Sifting star shouldnt bother them.
S
simm
Guest
Yes but I was talking about snails and such. I didnt think they would mess with them but I may be wronge.
maryc137
Member
I'll bet those little predator snails are what is killing most our our snails. About a week ago I was looking at a turbo snail that was going up my front glass, and I saw what looked like little white fleas. I figured they were probably some kind of pod, but I bet they are those little suckers that kill our snails.
j21kickster
Active Member
I have also heard of general hariness of aquacultured sanils being a problem- that aquacultured snails just dont make the transition as well as wild caught ones- but mabye someone could verify this
reefaddicted
Member
Wrass,
Just my opinion but I had many snails die b4 I put my fuge in. My trates were about 20-30 then consistanly. After the fuge settled in and I started using Chemipures, my trates went to zero. Haven't lost a snail in at least 2 months now.
I read somewhere that snails are sensitive to trates. Dunno if that's what stopped my snails from dying for sure, but seems to be related. HTH
Just my opinion but I had many snails die b4 I put my fuge in. My trates were about 20-30 then consistanly. After the fuge settled in and I started using Chemipures, my trates went to zero. Haven't lost a snail in at least 2 months now.
I read somewhere that snails are sensitive to trates. Dunno if that's what stopped my snails from dying for sure, but seems to be related. HTH
S
simm
Guest
Yes snails are very sensitive to trates.
T
thomas712
Guest
Wrassecal- Cemi-pure is a product made by Boyd enterprises that is a high grade carbon and resin filter bag that is an ion generator and exchange resin that helps keep a constant ph and pulls doc's out of the water like regular carbon but has more bang for the buck so to speak.
I use it 24/7
Thomas
I use it 24/7
Thomas
jonthefb
Active Member
RSD, the snails you are mentioning are pyrimidellidae snails. these are the same ones that target giant clams, and feed on their blood by piercing the clams mantle. these guys are predators of almost all molluscs, but are typically only introduced with giant clams. Teh will attack clams, snaisl, featherdusters, etc, and are a pain in the butt to get entirely rid of. somethign to consider though for sure! they do look like tiny grains of white rice. tha is about the best description for them.
check out this link:
http://www.rshimek.com/rogue's_gallery.htm#Pyramidellid%20Snails
check out this link:
http://www.rshimek.com/rogue's_gallery.htm#Pyramidellid%20Snails
jonthefb
Active Member
damn it its still doing it. anyway go to www.rshimek.com, click on reef aquaria, then animal identification, then rogues gallery, and finally pyrimidellidae snails!
good luck
jon
good luck
jon
wrassecal
Active Member
I just bought some saltwater at lfs (lazy). I asked what the salinity was and they said 1.022. I told them I kept mine at 1.025 - 1.026 and she said "really, how do your snails handle that?" I said, "well they are dropping like flies." Even though I acclimate them very carefully could keeping my salinity that high be what's killing them?