I have had a saltwater, 30 gallon, fish only tank up and running for 5 months. I had an ick problem that has me down to one cardinal and a cleaner shrimp left, but I think I have it beat finally. My problem is keeping snails. I started with 20 turbo snails (with plans to slowly add more). I have probably purchased 20 more and 15 other type of smaller snail (I think it started with an A but the name escapes me). My water conditions are all good. At one point my salinity was at .25 but have slowly lowered it to .19. I have made changes to the water temp from 78 to 82 over these few months. My problem is that I lose 2-3 snails each week. They don't ever die in large groups, just a few at a time. I have made changes to try to figure out what their most favorable conditions are. Is the ick getting to them also? But the snails were dying way before I got the ick introduced to the tank. Any ideas??
i want happy snails!
- Thread starter quinnfish
- Start date
papagimp
COMAS Rocks!
Are they starving. The do need sufficient food. Also, when you say turbo's, are you refering to Astrea's or the large mexican turbo snails. You also have to consider that snails tend to have short life spans. Not all, but many, and will require re-stocking every 6-12 months. Do you have any hermit crabs in the tank that may be killing snails?
mr_o98
Premium Member
Do you have hair algae that would require that amount of snails? If you do not, it sounds lke they are dying of starvation. They need ample algae to survive and having 20 turbo snails in a 30g tank is way too many if you do not have the amount of algae to feed them. 20 turbo snails can clean your 30g in maybe 2 weeks and then be out of food and starve. I would try and keep maybe a handful to continure cleaning unless,of course, if you have a hair algae problem. If you do not have hair algae and since your tank has only been up for 5 months, it sounds like you are starving them. Sorry.
papagimp
COMAS Rocks!
Also keep in mind please that certain snails are going to target certain areas of your tank. Astreas and Turbo's are going to stick to the glass for the most part, although turbos will work the rocks as well. But then you have others such as Cerith and Nasarius snails that stick to the sandbed, and help stire the sand in the process. You'll want a variety of snails to hit up all areas of your tank. And in appropriate numbers so as not to starve any one out.
angelsj247
New member
inverts are the first ones to go if anything in your tank changes quickly, if you changed your salinity way to fast it could of been that or the water temp change. i think 82 is a little high, 78 is probably your better temp, i also have turbos that keep dying and ive heard they are live better in cooler temps and arent good for warmer tanks. also that salinty is low. mine stays at .25, .19 is way to low i believe. you might want to raise to atleast .24 over a period of time, not all at once.
papagimp
COMAS Rocks!
True, so true. fwiw, certain hermits are more prone to killing snails than others. Scarlets tend to be somewhat more timid while the evil little blue legged hermits seem to kill snails for the kick of it. I've heard great things about the little white with pink stripped leg hermits (don't know a species name at all, sorry). And hermits are opportunistic feeders, and may not even help with the tank cleaning process. They could just as easily wait for you to feed your tank and grab that stuff instead. so that being said, there are other options for "clean up crews" that would not involve the evil hermits.
thanks for all the advice! I don't have hermit crabs and I don't think my shrimp or cardinal are eating them.
I had been told to have 2-3 snails per gallon. With their death rate, I am averaging about 15 at a time. Is that too many? I was thinking I needed closer to 50 so I wasn't even considering starvation. I have had a brown algae problem since set up. I was told this would go away and I would get green algae. This has not happened yet. Is the brown algae not what they want to eat?
Would more or less light finish off the brown algae and get me to the next stage?
Thanks!
I had been told to have 2-3 snails per gallon. With their death rate, I am averaging about 15 at a time. Is that too many? I was thinking I needed closer to 50 so I wasn't even considering starvation. I have had a brown algae problem since set up. I was told this would go away and I would get green algae. This has not happened yet. Is the brown algae not what they want to eat?
Would more or less light finish off the brown algae and get me to the next stage?
Thanks!
sunfish11
Premium Member
I have a150 hermits of different kinds and 100 snails of different kinds in my 210 and I have yet to see a hermit take down a healthy snail. I have seen astrea's lying on their back and hermits completely ignoring them until I turn the snail right side up (as long as the snail is healthy and alive). If a snail is near death or dead for whatever reason then the hermits clean it up. It would have to be a HUGE hermit to kill a Mexican Turbo. A lot of critters get blamed for killing other critters because they are feasting on the remains and it drives me nuts. I am not saying a hermit will never kill a snail, but I don't think it is common as people think. There are a lot of assumptions due to circumstancial evidence...
Lisa
Lisa
markzfishn1
Premium Member
How did you treat the ick problem? That may also have something to do with the snails.
i started out with some Ick Guard I bought at a LFS. You put in the correct dosage and then do a water change later. This didn't save 2 fish and a 3rd was developing white stuff. So I read about the fresh water dip and I have done that twice to the cardinal and he seems to be doing great. All signs are gone and behavior is back to normal. I couldn't find any info on wether the ick guard was safe for invertebrates so I just went with it, trying to save the fish. But, I feel like the snails were having trouble before the ick treatment was started.
angelsj247
New member
i dont think inverts can handle the ick guard. not possitive tho
papagimp
COMAS Rocks!
again, hermits are opportunistic so they may leave snails alone in lue of other foods. Or if they have plenty of shells laying around, their going to be less likely to killa snail for it's shell. But I assumed when I saw my hermits killing one snail after another, all in a row, and looking like they were enjoying it, that the cicrumstantial evidence pointed towards "evil"!!!
Mac Inger
Member
Quinn,...talking from experience and from what i am battling myself right now (doesn't have anything to do with the snails but...)....you still have ich in the tank.
Since you are down to one fish, i would really really suggest that you take that guy out and put him in quarantine. Leave the tank for 6 to 8 weeks fishless. Treat the quarantined fish with hypo or copper then put him back after 8 weeks.
Trust me there is no way to get rid of that %$#% ick without removing the fish. It will show up later either on the same fish, or on any new ones you get. Start it right man. I wish i had done it with mine. Now it will be so much harder for me to get all my fish out.
Since you are down to one fish, i would really really suggest that you take that guy out and put him in quarantine. Leave the tank for 6 to 8 weeks fishless. Treat the quarantined fish with hypo or copper then put him back after 8 weeks.
Trust me there is no way to get rid of that %$#% ick without removing the fish. It will show up later either on the same fish, or on any new ones you get. Start it right man. I wish i had done it with mine. Now it will be so much harder for me to get all my fish out.
greenbean36191
Premium Member
First, take Mac's advice with the fish.
As for the snails, low salinity and overstocking are probably your two biggest contributors to your difficulty. Most subtidal snails aren't going to last long at salinities below about 1.025. The lower you go the faster they die.
As far as stocking, I wouldn't start out with more than 1 snail per 2 gallons. If they aren't getting the job done after a while, it's easy enough to add more of them. If you start out with too many then you'll end up having to buy more anyway. If you can find snails like "strombus grazers" and Stomatella, which reproduce in our tanks then you don't even have to worry about dailing in the right number.
With most Turbo, and some Astraea, reef temperatures are a big problem, but it's something that takes on the order of months to kill them and it sounds like the tank is still fairly new.
As for the snails, low salinity and overstocking are probably your two biggest contributors to your difficulty. Most subtidal snails aren't going to last long at salinities below about 1.025. The lower you go the faster they die.
As far as stocking, I wouldn't start out with more than 1 snail per 2 gallons. If they aren't getting the job done after a while, it's easy enough to add more of them. If you start out with too many then you'll end up having to buy more anyway. If you can find snails like "strombus grazers" and Stomatella, which reproduce in our tanks then you don't even have to worry about dailing in the right number.
With most Turbo, and some Astraea, reef temperatures are a big problem, but it's something that takes on the order of months to kill them and it sounds like the tank is still fairly new.
That's not true at all. Most marine snails have very long lives-- on the order of decades to centuries. Almost all of the common snails in the hobby live several years as adults, so having to restock them every 6-12 months is a sign of a problem.
Frick-n-Frags
New member
I get at least 2 years out of my astreas and trochus. they get massive.
