3 dead snails...

peterkaymak · 12-06-2006, 09:51 PM

Hi all,

I'm just a begginer; I've had my tank for exactly 2 months. It's a 15 gal SW with 15 lbs live rock. After cycling it for 30 days, regular testing, etc... I decided to pick up my first fish. I bought 2 Ocellaris Clowns. They're doing quite well; they seem to be pretty healthy. I also have about 12-15 snails and 3 red-legged crabs for cleaning purposes... I test my ammonia, nitrite, nitrate every week. and I test salinity almost every day. Everything seems to be fine. But today, I realized 3 of my snails had not moved from their spots in about 48 hours. I took them out to inspect them and found they were dead (and whoa do dead snails ever smell bad!)... Is this a forewarning for other problems? Is this an indication of my water quality? Are there worse things to come? I am quite worried to say the least. While I HATE to see any animal in my tank die, I am comforted that it was only 3 snails and not my wonderful little clowns...

I read somewhere that too many snails can cause this problem...

Anyway, anyone have any insight?

Thanks,
Pete

aeolussalukis · 12-06-2006, 10:57 PM

Is your water stable now? I would take a sample to your LFS just to get a second opinion. I just picked up 3 more snails tonight - I now have 4 turbo snails in a 92 gallon tank. I'm not sure how many you are supposed to have - would be curious what the experts say!

Dawn

Tommy Gun · 12-06-2006, 11:22 PM

I think in such a new tank, and small tank at that, you may have a water quality issue that the clowns are not so affected by (they are very hardy and I think members of the damsel family or close relatives who can survive a cycle). Otherwise I would think that you do not have enough algea or food in the tank for your snails and maybe some starved.

The smaller tanks are sometimes the hardest because things can go bad so fast in a small amount of water. However, you can also clear them up quickly as well so I might test a bit more often than once a week. Also, make sure that you keep copper away from the tank and that you are doing your water changes nice and smoothly with nearly equal salinities between old and new water as well as the temp.

I have some larger snails and in the past had a few die on me for apparently no reason. I later found out that large, adult hermit crabs often dine on them. I traded them in for a ton of smaller ones and poof! havent lost a snail since.

peterkaymak · 12-06-2006, 11:42 PM

Great! Thanks.. I'll definitely take a sample to my LFS. i'll get that done asap. I was told that you should have 1 snail per gallon.. although that always seemed kinda high to me...

Anyway, Thanks for the replies. I'll keep a close eye on things..

Pete

reboot777 · 12-06-2006, 11:50 PM

I know a guy who lost alot of snails due to a mantis shrimp in his tank.

hailfire65 · 02-20-2007, 07:34 PM

to Dawn, in a tank that large i'd probably get 45-60 snails and 30 small hermit crabs

Chitown1 · 02-20-2007, 09:11 PM

If you are tesing the water and the LFS test also shows good, it is prob. one or more of a couple things,

1. there may not be enough food
Which may also contribute to #2

2. the crabs killed them.

Fish are more tolerant to nitrates than inverts are, so make sure you and the LFS test is 3 times to make sure you have a accurate reading.

Abbey · 02-21-2007, 10:06 PM

Well I lost some snails recently too, but mine was a copper problem. I am pretty new at this too but my 20 gallon did fine with just 3 turbo snails and i think yours probably did not have enough food like everyone else thinks. but it could really be a number of other things. dont think you really need to replace your snails because you probably have plenty