Help!! all of my new snails must have died!

[Chelo's Big Sis]

I got home last night and did a 12gal. water change, floated and acclamated all of my loot. None of the snails came out of their shells. I hung out with the tank for a while to watch my new stuff open up and went to bed. I just got home from work and ran down to see how everything looked and all of the snails hadn't moved and a small anthelia that was by them looked a bit wilted. I just took out all of the shells and some of the bodies acctually came out on my hand!! yeck!! I put them in a container with some water to see if anybody moves and nothing. :sad1: All of my other stuff is fine except for the anthelia that was right in the middle of where the snails were (which I moved now). Even my new bubble tip anenome. It looks great and my one clown is already swimming in it. I am making more water and plan on doing another change but what did I do wrong? Any help is appreciated.
Thanks
Cindy

 

[chuggy]

WHAT ARE YOUR PARAMETERS? HOW ARE THE NITRATES?

 

[cash03ins]

Was your live rock ever coppered? If so that could kill the snails
Wayne

 

[Chelo's Big Sis]

I don't know if my rock was ever coppered. This tank has been going for at least 2 years. My brother had it before me and I've had it for just over 1 year. All of my other crabs and etc are fine, just not the new snails from last night.

I only have a piece of crap Tetra test NO-3 kit. I just did another test and it was between 50 mg/l and 100 mg/l. According to the kit I need to do another water change asap, which I was in the process of doing.

Wouldn't the anenome be one of the first to show a problem? It looks ok. I thought those need "pristine" water conditions.???

UGH!!

Cindy

 

[CeasarIM]

My snails just crawl out of my tank every night.When I get up in the morning It's the same ritual,,,,,look behind the tank,,,,,pick up dryed-up snails ,,,,,put back in the tank.I dont know how long they're out of the water but when I put all of them back eventually they come alive,lol.

 

[Kingpin616]

I think it was from A. Calfo but i have read that you should acclimate snails for 4 hours for 0.001 sg change especially if increasing salinity. I experienced this with a batch of snails when my hydrometer was misreading to high. I was at 1.030. The snails actually tipped me off because a whole batch died upon acclimation over 2-3 hours. I lowered my salinity was still 0.002 high acclimated for 8 hours and they all lived. FWIW.

 

[alix2.0]

wow that sucks. if you have crabs and stuff then i doubt that copper would have killed the snails. if these were the snails that you got from me, let me know and ill paypal your money back, or ill give you more at the next meeting. i absolutely hate hearing about stuff dying!

good luck with the tank, and let me know.

alix

 

[Akronviper]

From reef cleaners.org, caught me buy surprise when I read it but been using the same aclimation procces for a while and never had a snail or crab death.

Acclimation (Snails & Hermit Crabs)

1. Float the bag in your tank to get the snail used to the temperature in your aquarium.

2. Wait 15 minutes.

3. Add contents to tank.

Important: Snails may go through shock during shipping, and be closed when they arrive. You should give them plenty of time to come out of their shells and move around before deciding they didn't make the trip. Ceriths may go dormant for up to 3 days.

You may find this to be different than the acclimation procedure you are used to carrying out. The reason we now ask our customers to use this procedure is because our snails and crabs live intertidally, and can handle drastic swings in ph/salinity without a problem. However, what they can't handle is toxic levels of ammonia. During the shipping process, ammonia levels in the shipping bags build, while the ph level goes down. As the ph goes down the toxicity of ammonia also goes down. However, when your tank water with normal ph is introduced to the shipping bags, and the ph rises, so does the toxicity of the ammonia, and you will be poisoning the livestock. Please don't do this. Any other method of acclimation voids the Alive Arrival Guarantee.

 

[vietcu]

I have been doing the float bag trick with all my inverts since I began this hobby. I have yet to have any significant death using that method. Would float the bag in my tank or sump for about 30 minute, then take them out the bag and either let them stick themselves to the glass or just throw them in. Not really careful with my stuff but hey it works for me .

 

[Chelo's Big Sis]

Thanks for all of the info.

I floated them and then added a little bit of my water. floated them more, added more water and then once more the same and added them (with none of the water) to the tank. Maybe too much floating and adding water? but the next morning when I woke up and noticed they weren't moving, I took them all out and put them in a container with water. Later on in the day, I noticed that there might be a little movement, so I put about 20 back in and waited until this morning. When the lights came on, I could see a film floating from them and some of the bodies coming out so I pulled them all again. And I think they are all done. And during all of that last night, I bought some pre-mixed water, bought some distilled water to make saltwater with, and made some of my own with my ro thing. I figured that would be the quickest way to get saltwater made and back in the tank. It was about 13 or so gal. change, I've done so many, I can't exactly remember how many gal. I feel like I've just worked on the bucket bergade. I was exhausted!! and I just did another 7 gal. change. I'm worried the rotting snails will foul the water for my fish and anoneme.

Alix, don't worry, it obviously wasn't anything you did wrong or was wrong with the snails, it was something I did wrong or that was wrong with my water. Everyone elses were fine I assume.

I have been looking on line for a cheap costing water test kit. I also need some new bulbs and some salt so after I do some more water testing, I might find out what the problem is.

Cindy