I think my snails are dead - what now?

[RyanG027]

My 75g tank has been up for about 4 months, stocked only with a coral beauty, melanurus wrasse, and until a few weeks ago, 3 cerith snails.

About 2 weeks ago I noticed one of my snails had been in the same spot for 24 straight hours, and my wrasse was starting to pick at him, so I removed it from the tank. In those 2 weeks, I haven't seen the other 2 snails once, and I typically saw them at least every other day.

I have about 80 pounds of sand in the tank, so the sand bed is pretty deep.

What is my next step here?
Pull my rock and try to dig up the snails?
Can I buy something to eat the dead snails?


Thanks in advance!

 

[kevin21]

I wouldn't go crazy worrying about finding a couple dead snails in a 75g tank. Other snails, crabs, or crustaceans will take care of eating the dead. Also any of the crustaceans living in the sand bed should break it down no problem. Nothing to worry about. I would double check parameters and make sure everything is in line, especially nitrates and ALK. If all good, some snails just don't last very long in captivity.

 

[scooter31707]

I wouldn't freak now, but just a word of caution, IME my Melanurus love snails and crabs. So he might be the culprit.

 

[dmarkham]

If you have hermit crabs they will kill off cerith snails for their shell.

 

[RyanG027]

I wouldn't freak now, but just a word of caution, IME my Melanurus love snails and crabs. So he might be the culprit.

What do you use as a CUC if not snails and crabs?

 

[crawlerman]

My Melanurus ate the small snails but never bothered the turbo snails. He doesn't bother my hermits, but if yours does you could go with bigger scarlet hermits and emerald crabs. I've never had a problem with emerald crabs but some have. So watch them and remove to the sump if they start harassing corals. I also have a large population of brittle stars and bristle worms that help.

 

[RyanG027]

My Melanurus ate the small snails but never bothered the turbo snails. He doesn't bother my hermits, but if yours does you could go with bigger scarlet hermits and emerald crabs. I've never had a problem with emerald crabs but some have. So watch them and remove to the sump if they start harassing corals. I also have a large population of brittle stars and bristle worms that help.

Honestly, my wrasse never once bothered my snails before this. I thought maybe he was picking on the one just because it hadn't moved and was vulnerable, but when the snails were active he never paid any attention to them.

Are the crabs going to sift the sand as well as the snails did? With my DSB, that's my main concern.

 

[RyanG027]

Also, this is a FOWLR tank with no sump.

 

[Sk8r]

If you have dead snails with no sign of their being eaten, test the water chemistry. Snails don't spontaneously die together unless a) there's a predator or b) the water is headed in a bad direction. Particularly look at alkalinity and salinity; be sure your tests are reading right.

 

[AwesomeDavid]

Did they run out of food and starve? Because that is a possibility.

 

[RyanG027]

If you have dead snails with no sign of their being eaten, test the water chemistry. Snails don't spontaneously die together unless a) there's a predator or b) the water is headed in a bad direction. Particularly look at alkalinity and salinity; be sure your tests are reading right.

I've been testing my water a bit more frequently because of this.
Salinity is always 1.023-.024
Alk holding steady at around 8.5
Nitrates 20 ppm
Nitrites 0
Ammonia 0

 

[RyanG027]

Did they run out of food and starve? Because that is a possibility.

I think if anything I may be slightly overfeeding. Typically I feed 1 cube of mysis per day, and a few pellets at night before bed.

 

[mcgyvr]

Overfeeding is not going to kill snails unless its negatively impacting water quality (which its not)

Snails do die.. Fish/Crabs can eat them..,etc...etc...
There is NO need to dig them out.. I've got snail shells from years back still in the sand,etc...

Just go by more.. Its just life..

 

[crawlerman]

you could get a sand sifting goby. I have a gold headed sleeper goby and he works the sand nonstop. downside is he dusts everything that is low. sand sifting star might be an option. As far as checking for some kind of heavy metal, add a polypad and check the color to see if something is present.

 

[RyanG027]

I've been avoiding getting a goby to be honest, I'm not a fan of all the tunneling and rearranging they do.

I've also read they aren't good to keep with a DSB because they prey on the good critters necessary to a DSB ...can anyone confirm or refute that?

 

[Sk8r]

A yellow watchman only changes burrows once every 3 months or so, which means while they clean the sand, they do it slowly, and very gratefully take whatever regular food falls near. Their footprint is about 8"x 3" at any one time, re the burrow they make, and unless you have rock actually seated on the sandbed rather than on the bottom glass/supporting plate (recommended) you won't have rocks displaced by undermining. If you have rock stacks resting only on sand, you could have trouble.

 

[RyanG027]

A yellow watchman only changes burrows once every 3 months or so, which means while they clean the sand, they do it slowly, and very gratefully take whatever regular food falls near. Their footprint is about 8"x 3" at any one time, re the burrow they make, and unless you have rock actually seated on the sandbed rather than on the bottom glass/supporting plate (recommended) you won't have rocks displaced by undermining. If you have rock stacks resting only on sand, you could have trouble.

This is good advice. I did my research before setting up the tank, so the base rock is all touching the bottom glass, so undermining shouldn't be an issue. I guess I could always try it out - my LFS gladly will credit me back for fish that don't work out in the tank.


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