Snails Dying

[MidTnMike41]

All my snails seem to be dying all at the same time. I have 3 Mexican Turbos and several Astraea Snails that are all looking really bad. I have lost about 3 Astraea's in the last 24 hours and all 3 of my turbos are have been sitting in the same spot for 3 days. They are still alive but seem very sluggish. My heater went out about 2 weeks and the temp got down to 72 before I noticed but is not hovering around 78 +/- .5 now after new heater. This is the only thing that has changed recently in my tank. All my fish, shrimp, and hermits seem to be doing fine, I hope this is not a sign of bad things to come for them. Anyone have any ideas? Below are my water parameters.

salinity 1.025
nitrates 0
phosphates .02ppm
calcium 420
magnesium 1400
alk 9ish
temp 78
Weekly 5% water changes
running GFO and carbon

 

[Deftones2015]

Is there any algae in the tank for them to eat? They make have ate all the algae and now have nothing to eat. i don't see anything wrong with your water param.

How long has your tank been running? Where is your ammonia and nitrites sitting?

 

[Roccus]

72 wont hurt them...I run my sea hose tanks at 72 year 'round...you haven't had any quick Sg. swings...

If I were a betting an I'd bet they are starving to death....unless you have algae you are not telling us about...

 

[MidTnMike41]

I meant to include that my tank is only 6 months old. It is still going through the uglies but ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite have all been consistent 0 zero since the end of the first month. No big swings in any parameters other than the temp when the heater went out. Most of the green algae is now gone but there is a ton of the red slime algae right now. I still get a green film on the glass that i have clean everyday, at least once a day. I know the snails do not eat the red stuff. If they are in need of food what can I feed them? I hate to see the snail Apocalypse going on right now, they were the first inhabitants of my new tank.

 

[Deftones2015]

You can try breaking algae wafers into smaller pieces and feeding those.

From what I have seen the tank will sustain a certain number of snails without added feeding. I always get a small cuc like less than a quarter of what websites reccomend that way I don't have snails dying off, at least not as much.

 

[Sk8r]

Formula One Sinking Pellet works fine.

 

[Duke4life]

I had the same thing happen a couple weeks ago. Only 1s that lasted are the few that hang by my overflow.

 

[dougmnj]

turbos dying

turbos dying

from what I've read of the turbo snails astreas are about the only snail that can handle reef temps and all snails have trouble with big swings in temp and as well as chemistry especially ammonia in any quantity nitrites being a close second. The other problem is that snails can rapidly eat themselves out of food and if your not feeding them they starve especially in newer set ups. I had that problem until I started feeding them then the die offs slowed to almost none. One last item is most snails cannot right themselves and even those that can are subject to harassment leading to damage which may kill them immediately or eventually depending on the damage done even if they do right themselves as I believe someone else already posted.