Snails dying

[outdrsyguy1]

I've had something strange happen in the last month or so. I've had a mix of trochus and nerite snaile (mostly trochus) with a couple turbos in my tank. I needed more to keep up and bought about 20 more trochus and 4 turbo for my 110 gallon. I acclimated them properly over about 2 hours before putting them in. Then a couple weeks later I noticed some empty shells and a bunch of them looked really sluggish and didn't seem to want to right themselves. even if I flipped them over they would climb back up the glass or anything. I was having a fair algae outbreak at the time but my cuc was really small so i figured they would catch up. Basically all my trochus died first and now the turbos are looking really sluggish.

Is there such a thing as snail disease? I also tried clams a couple months ago and they died from pinched mantle disease. I read somewhere that it also hosted in snails but didn't affect them as bad. Anyone have suggestions or ideas to try? I do have a fairly large algae outbreak and here's my info:

temp 79.6 to 80.6
1.026 salinity
7.9 dkh alk
430 calc
1330 mag
.02 ish phosphated (elos)
3.5 nitrates (red sea nitrate pro and also api though obviously api is harder to discern)

nothing seems to be attacking them till they are dead. there are plenty of empty shells for hermits.
it's a mixed reef tank and all the corals seem to be doing about the same as normal or improving. anemone's are doing fine, bout 10 or so fish doing fine.

the algae may be byropsis, i'm having a hard time telling.
thanks!

 

[curtismaximus]

Are they doing good for awhile and then dieing? Or are they just bad snails to begin with?

 

[hnguyen]

I've read from one of the cuc vendors website stating you shouldn't acclimate your snails the same way you do your fish. They said to just float the bag for awhile and just throw them in the tank. I can't remember from the top of my head but it has something to do with ph in the bag during shipment and when you drip it changes something that kills them. I'll have to see if I can find it again.


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[hnguyen]

Found it!! http://www.reefcleaners.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17&Itemid=67">http://www.reefcleaners.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17&Itemid=67</a>



It has to do with ammonia, they produce a lot of ammonia during shipment and as the ph in the bag drops so does the ammonia. When you drip acclimate them, the ph level rises in the bag and so does the ammonia. That's what kills them. I'm assuming it may not kill them right away but they have been exposed to high levels of toxin so it could take days to weeks for them to die. Hope that helps.


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[outdrsyguy1]

Interesting about acclimation. Thanks for the info. Doesn't explain why my original batch of trochus died along with the new batch. They were probably 9 months old. The new batch seemed okay. I think they lasted about a month. Maybe I'll try another batch and see how it goes.

 

[jc_k]

I've noticed if my salinity gets to high even if its just a day, ill have some snails die off.

 

[outdrsyguy1]

how high would you say is "high"? Mine's 1.026 but I don't think it's ever been over 1.027. bought some calibration solution 4 months ago so i'm thinking it's accurate still.
good to know though.

 

[jc_k]

Oh well that shouldn't be the problem. I think it 1.030.

 

[jennm]

What was the specific gravity of the bag water?

Yes, the chemical reaction described in bag water does occur, but moving them to clean water quickly will backfire if the water they are moving to has vastly different specific gravity.

Jenn

 

[ringo®]

Man,......you just can't catch a break, Rusty.

 

[outdrsyguy1]

I can't remember what the bag water was since it's been close to 3 months at this point. I did drip them over a couple hours. I used to have a tough time dripping stuff as my wife keeps it cold in the house and the acclimator bucket gets really cold quickly. I developed a new process where I put the drip bucket inside a bigger bucket, then fill the big bucket with water and put a heater in it so that the ambient surroundings are the same temp as the water. Helps keep very smooth temp in the acclimation bucket.

I have 3 trochus that were in my qt from aefw that I just put in the display tank. put 2 in the sump since it's got plenty to eat and nothing can get them and one in the display area. I'll see how they do over the next couple weeks and add more if they survive. I did find one little baby trochus in the sump (my original batch spawned) so it's been alive there quite a while.

thanks dave, i really can't catch a break with this tank. since I started up 1.5 years ago ive had red bugs, aefw, zoa pox, pinched mantle disease, a slew of corals that slowly faded color and died over 6 months. finally got most of the coral issues straightened out but now i've got algae like crazy and I think I might even have byropsis.

Makes you just want to play Russian roulette.......with a 6 shooter......fully loaded.....

 

[ringo®]

Buy a lottery ticket....The odds are in your favor at the moment.

 

[mikesmith34]

That is the only thing that really worries me when doing these frag swaps. I've never to my knowledge had an infestation in my tank. Sorry you are having issues.

 

[bulkrate]

Are you getting snails locally or having them shipped overnight/2day? If local, the trip home shouldn't be long enough for the concerns outlined in the reefcleaner article to be a factor. Dripping would probably be a good idea.

Shipping's an entirely different ballgame, though. I seem to recall that nowadays snails are shipped packed in moist paper towels or the like to force them into a dormant state for the trip (and likely to not have to pay for shipping water around - that stuff is expensive!). Apparently they also more readily accept different tank water chemistries on arrival via this method.

All that being said - I've had the same experience recently, along with a good bit of die-off of my LPS. I wonder if Rowsell/Marietta's switched treatment methods in the last 6 months (chloramines)?

 

[mikesmith34]

BulkRate;944487 wrote: Are you getting snails locally or having them shipped overnight/2day? If local, the trip home shouldn't be long enough for the concerns outlined in the reefcleaner article to be a factor. Dripping would probably be a good idea.

Shipping's an entirely different ballgame, though. I seem to recall that nowadays snails are shipped packed in moist paper towels or the like to force them into a dormant state for the trip (and likely to not have to pay for shipping water around - that stuff is expensive!). Apparently they also more readily accept different tank water chemistries on arrival via this method.

All that being said - I've had the same experience recently, along with a good bit of die-off of my LPS. I wonder if Rowsell/Marietta's switched treatment methods in the last 6 months (chloramines)?

That was the exact reason I went with the chloromine removing 5 stage. Just as sure as I didn't they would start using it. Your assumption does make sence.

 

[outdrsyguy1]

I thought my DI/RO filter removed pretty much everything from the water? it's only 4 stage (carbon, filter, membrane, DI).

I think the first batch was reefcleaners and the second was from live aquaria. I can't remember how each was shipped though.

k this may seem odd, but is it possible I have some weird strain of algae that's poisonus to snails? lol. The ones I swapped over from the qt are acting weird. One in the DT is very lackadaisical and hasn't moved much while the one in the sump has travelled around quite a bit. Obviously there's way more algae in the dt so maybe he's just full, but something's not quite right about it.

Should I test my iodine or some other element that might affect them? I only do about 15% wc every 3 or 4 weeks.