Large Snails keep dying

[delusions]

Greetings,
I can't seem to keep my marghertia(sp) or turbos alive long enough to do anything. I have cerinth and nassarius that are alive and well, but the larger ones keep dying. They aren't flipping over, they simply retreat into their shells and die after a few days. I've tried this a few times over the past years to no avail. Any ideas?

 

[Airwolf75]

Tank is probably too hot. Buy small snails.

 

[Elysia]

Margarita snails are usually Tegula funebralis in the trade. They are from places like Baja California, Mexico (Pacific coast) and can't take the sustained warm temps in reef aquariums. In their natural habitat, these snails are believed to live over 100 years.
Some of the Turbo spp. also come from Mexico, and so can have the same problems.

I may have read that these snails have problems w/ either lower pH or lower disolved oxygen (i.e. on the low-normal range), which would equate w/ them being in cooler waters, but I can't recall where I might have read that, and I could be wrong.

 

[delusions]

tank stays around 79. pH is around 8.0. What large snails can i get then?

 

[Elysia]

As Airwolf stated, you could start off w/ smaller Turbo spp. snails, give them a long enough period of acclimation, and hold them up to the glass one at a time and allow them to attach when introducing them to the display tank. You could also try finding Trochus spp. snails.

 

[Airwolf75]

Check the origins, anything from the East Pacific, avoid, including, Turbos, Margarits, Top Crowns

Instead try Trochus, Tectus, Astrea, Cerith, Columbellid,
are the 5 best

 

[graveyardworm]

I think its the time of year and where wholesalers are getting their livestock from. I have the very sam problem. I have added quite a few snails recently and none of them have survived. They close right up and eventually die. Check with you LFS as to origin if they cant tell you its Indo Pacific then dont buy it. Check with certain online retailers for aquacultured snails. This way you know where they came from and its more environmentally responsible. Places like Indo-Pacific seafarms and Inland Aquatics both sell tank raised snails.

 

[Burkette]

Hi, I'm a newb here, but I have been having this same problem. I've gone to quite a few LFSs and gotten a myriad of information. The best, and only one that has worked so far for me was changing the salinity. I was keeping my salinty at 1.21-1.22. The guy at the LFS said try to keep the salinity at about 1.24 to keep the inverts alive. Now, since I've had my tank, I have not lost a hermit crab (5 for 5), and have lost all of my snaile, both turbo(mexican included) and margherita. I added some ecean crystal salt to a 5 gal bucket at a salinity of 1.3, and added it slowly to my tank, and the three snails I put in three days ago are still alive. Dont know if this is a fluke, or if it helped raising the salinity, but I do know that my snails are still alive. Just my .02.

 

[graveyardworm]

The Mexican Turbo and Margarita's are generally collected in subtropical or even temperate waters and dont usually fair to well at reef temps as well many of the other snails found at LFS's. Ask the store owner if he knows where the snails were collected if he doesnt know dont buy them. If they were collected from tropical areas in the Pacific and Carribean then you're okay. It helps too in some to make yourself familiar with the correct snails to buy. There are quite a few online vendors that sell tropical snail varieties which also are successful at breeding in home aquariums. Already pointed this out in my previous post as well as links to where aquacultured snails can be purchased.

 

[jollyballs]

bump