snail acclimation.

silverado61

silverado61

Well-Known Member
Well I Decided to boost my cuc and bought a snail army. 50 Nassarius, 10 Cerith, 10 large Cerith, 10 Turbo, 10 Astrea and 10 Nerites snails.
They arrived this afternoon as I was walking out the door for the second half of my split shift at work (figures). All I had time for was to take them out of the shipping box and put the bags in the sump to temp acclimate till I get home, which will be in about an hour.
Then I'll start the long tedious process of acclimating them to my tank. It'll take about 3hrs since snails have a complex circulatory system and even small sudden changes in salinity can kill or cripple them making them easy prey, I'm going to empty the bags, water and all, into small Tupperware containers and float them in the water. I'll start by adding a very small amount of tank water to each bowl (about 10ml) every 15min for about 1-1/2hrs.
Then I'll continue adding about 10ml while taking out 10ml of the old water for about an hour. The last 1/2hr I'll start just removing about 20ml of water. After the 3hrs are up. I'll put on a pair of rubber gloves and scoop them out and place the in the tank and sump. 1/4 of each species will go in the sump. The rest in the tank. Making sure that the ones that can't right themselves are turned right side up.
I know how I'm going to acclimate mine to the tank. I'd just like to know how you would acclimate yours. Give me your thoughts on the subject. I'm looking forward to reading other peoples methods.
The goal I'm looking for here is ZERO casualties. I know that's a lot to hope for but I'll do the best I can. I'll let you know how it turns out.
 
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seecrabrun

seecrabrun

Active Member
Mine came in on wet paper towels... so there wasn't anything to work with. I just started them off in a low salinity mixture and dripped the tank water in. Since there was no way for me to know what they would respond to... Luckily none of them died, not one! But I'm iffy about ordering from the same place again.

I only order dwarf ceriths and naussarius.
 
aduvall

aduvall

Member
I generally put them in a bucket with their old water. Then I slow drip acclimate for about 45 min. I take out a cup of water and keep slow dripping for about 15 more. Then I take out another cup or 2 of water and speed up the drip for the next 30 minutes. Then I do 2 more cups and faster drip for 15.

I honestly do a similar acclimation for my fish as well.
 
pegasus

pegasus

Well-Known Member
Slow drip method. I use a gang valve (much better than tying those annoying knots) and about 3' of airline tubing with the end taped to a large plastic bowl. If the snails are not packed in water, you only have to temp acclimate for 15-20 minutes and drop them in the tank. Couldn't be simpler. Those that are packed in water also get temp acclimated, then they go in the plastic bowl along with their water. I usually swirl the water to stir up the waste, and pour as much out as I can and still have enough water to keep them covered. I start a slow drip (approximately 4-6 drops per second), and do this until the water level has doubled. I pour half of it out, and wait until it doubles again... and again. I usually do this for about 1 1/2 hours, and then speed up the flow just a little... to a small trickle. I let it trickle for another 1/2 - 1 hour, pouring off when needed. After a minimum of 2 hours, I'll scoop them out of the bowl, place them in the tank, and discard the water in the bowl. It's the method I use for all my livestock. Fish take less time, and sea stars take longer, but the process is exactly the same. Oh... and always acclimate in plastic, porcelain, or even ceramic, but never in styrofoam.
 
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silverado61

silverado61

Well-Known Member
Anything I've ever read about acclimation is you never use Styrofoam to acclimate. Something about the chemicals used in the process of making it could leach into the water.
 
silverado61

silverado61

Well-Known Member
Almost a total success. A few casualties. Best I can figure 4 astrea, 10 nassarious and 1 large cerith snail didn't make it through the night. One of the astrea's got taken down by a hermit so I dropped the crab into the fuge. The other three where probably weakened by the trip and weren't strong enough to make through acclimation. The 10 nassarious? Out of 50 that's a pretty good survivable rate I guess. As far as the large cerith, he never moved. The rest immediately started digging their way down into the sand. I'll probably only see them again when I feed the tank. All the nerite and small cerith snails made it and are all over the tank. The small cerith's will be gone into the substrate by the time the lights come on. I feel bad but a 15% loss should have been expected I guess. I don't like losing any animals no matter how small.
 
jay0705

jay0705

Well-Known Member
I believe it was snake that said attach them to the glass above the water and let them move them selves in
 
silverado61

silverado61

Well-Known Member
If they'll attach. I don't know if they're strong enough. Thinking about putting them in a small glass in the tank and see if they crawl out on their own. At least in the glass, the hermits can't get to them.
 
jay0705

jay0705

Well-Known Member
True, I ordered snails from here once, they came in no water. So thats how I did it after temp acc
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
They are shipped in very little water, just enough to keep them damp...I always just floated the bag they came in to allow them to temperature acclimate, then dump them in...never lost a snail to acclimation.
 
seecrabrun

seecrabrun

Active Member
Yeah I don't like losing any animals either. I love them all, big or small.
I know the circle of life means they will die, but I miss them still.

I have 1 aggressive hermit that prays on large snails. Sits outside their shell for hours until she finally catches it and rips it apart. I can't put any snails in the tank with an opening big enough for her claw.
 
pegasus

pegasus

Well-Known Member
silverado61 said:
Almost a total success. A few casualties. Best I can figure 4 astrea, 10 nassarious and 1 large cerith snail didn't make it through the night. One of the astrea's got taken down by a hermit so I dropped the crab into the fuge. The other three where probably weakened by the trip and weren't strong enough to make through acclimation. The 10 nassarious? Out of 50 that's a pretty good survivable rate I guess. As far as the large cerith, he never moved. The rest immediately started digging their way down into the sand. I'll probably only see them again when I feed the tank. All the nerite and small cerith snails made it and are all over the tank. The small cerith's will be gone into the substrate by the time the lights come on. I feel bad but a 15% loss should have been expected I guess. I don't like losing any animals no matter how small.
Click to expand...
That's actually a high rate of mortality for nassarius snails. I came home to find my order of 100 snails sitting in my carport in 29F weather. It hadn't been there long, as I had only been gone (working) for a couple of hours. The heat pack in the Styrofoam container was ice cold. Many snails died, including the two large tiger sand conchs. Of the 30 nassarius snails, I lost zero. Out of 100's of nassarius snails I've ordered, I can count the transport fatalities on one hand. They always hit the ground running... or rather... the acclimation bowl slithering. Nerite and large cerith snails seem to be the bulk of my DOA's. However, cerith snails can take days to fully recover from the journey, so don't give up on them too soon. I've also seen Nerite snails take a day or two to become active. If a snail is DOA, it will usually get covered with, and eaten by, nassarius snails almost immediately. They have a nose for dead animals. Literally. They use their "snorkel" to sniff out food.
 
silverado61

silverado61

Well-Known Member
The one cerith that I thought was a gonner is, well, gone. Apparently he woke up and dug in. The nassarius must have been playing dead too cause I don't see them on the substrate anymore. The four astrea's are in a glass and two seem to be recovering a little.
 
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silverado61

silverado61

Well-Known Member
Update: My hermits DID start picking off my Astrea and Nerite snails one by one. So took all but one hermit out and tossed them in the fuge. The one I didn't remove, I call him RV because he was small when he moved into a shell at least five times the size of the shell he came in and the little bugger dragged that RV sized shell everywhere and refused to give up until he grew into it. Now he's huge but the most gentle hermit I've ever seen. He crawls over my snails on his way to somewhere without giving them a second look. So I left him. Now I've got about 8 hermits in my fuge. The snails I had in there I took out and put in the display.
 
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