Snails stay at surface of water.

[SATAN FISH]

My tank has a big problem with snails meaning, they don't like my tank. I had some turbo snails and they died after about 4 months. I still have nassarius snails, and they are doing fine I think. They are hiding under the sand with their breathers out of the sand, just like they do all the time until food hits the water, then they come out. Any other snails or even the sea hares I bought all try to make their way to the surface of the water. Then they don't seem to make it after a couple of weeks (or days with the sea hares). I currently have 7 out of 20 that I just bought that are just hanging out up top, literally out of the water.

My question is... Why would snails do this? I'm assuming there is something in the water that is bothering them. But what parameters would have to be out to make them do that.

Nitrate is below 5ppm
Phosphate is below .03ppm
salinity is up at 1.026

All other creatures in the tank appear to be doing fine. fish, peppermint shrimp, blood red cleaner shrimp, pistol shrimp, corals are doing ok-ish.

Something's got to be agitating them right? But what agitates snails?

 

[Scoobers]

What are the rest of your parameters? PH? Its strange that they last a few months and then died. If your water was off it seems like they would die relatively soon after being put in the tank the other thing is your shrimp would be in trouble as well if your parameters were off. Are you sure they aren't starving to death?

 

[SLove1104]

Copper is one of the leading causes of reoccurring invert deaths... Any way you might have gotten copper in the tank?

 

[Elysia]

Could be low oxygen levels. Could be the species of snails (i.e. the time of year collected, the temp. of water kept in, the amount of time they have spent upside down and unable to right themselves, or the snails in question may be intertidal snails.) Wouldn't copper affect the shrimp as well? Do you have dinos (not diatoms)? They can be toxic to snails, IIRC.

 

[SATAN FISH]

Could be low oxygen levels. Could be the species of snails (i.e. the time of year collected, the temp. of water kept in, the amount of time they have spent upside down and unable to right themselves, or the snails in question may be intertidal snails.) Wouldn't copper affect the shrimp as well? Do you have dinos (not diatoms)? They can be toxic to snails, IIRC.

I don't believe it is low oxygen levels. I have a very large skimmer on the tank that puts out a ton of bubbles as it skims in my wet dry sump.

Temp is 78 degrees
PH varies through out the day, but is mainly at 8.2 - 8.3 during the day.

As far as dino's go, I am not sure. Dino's are the brown algae looking crap that likes to sit on the sand bed right? No I don't have that. I do have a HA problem (hence the sea hares) although I don't know how with no nitrates or phosphates. Either way, all the other inverts are doing fine. I guess they COULD be starving to death. I feed very little to my tank. Formula 1 once a day. Water top offs are all done with RODI water.

The tank used to be a fresh water tank and I did treat it with something that may have had copper in it back then. But the tank was thoroughly cleaned with distilled vinegar before any water was put in it.

Since I posted this original post a couple days ago, most of them are down in the water now. One is still at the top of the tank. I would mention the species of snails, however I have no clue what they are. Not nassarius and not turbo's.

Even if I don't figure this out, I do appreciate the help guys.

 

[mndfreeze]

Post pics of the snails in question. I have in my nano a few astrea, a trochus (had 3, 2 died out of nowhere over a long period of time, slowly) a few stomatella (awesome), 5 Cerith, and nassarius.

Nassarius are hardy little bastards. Mine survived an attempt at a soft cycle (saving free coral I got from the LFS when I was buying seeder live rock)

My astrea's are the ONLY snails in my tank that go up to the water line and will sit at it, above it, right below it, sometimes eat, etc. Havn't lost one of those.

My Ceriths will graze near the water line, but only feeding. They don't stop and chill like my astra do.

My trochus eats at 900mph and never stops moving it seems.

 

[rssjsb]

There are some snails sold in the trade that are collected in tidal zones and will crawl out of the water. Pictures would help.

 

[SATAN FISH]

Cool, I will post some pics as soon as I can then.

 

[Elysia]

As far as your phosphate level reading zero on your test kit and your tank growing hair algae... I think phosphate test kits are pretty useless. Pretty much, if there are available phosphates in your water, they are going to fuel algae growth & the algae will use all that is available -- so your test kit isn't going to show much. Its the algae that shows that you have phosphates.

Diatoms are the golden brown algae that likes to sort of cover everything in a light sprinkling of algae; its the kind of algae that most of our snails like to eat. Dinoflagellates are different -- the ones often found in tanks are described as appearing brown & snot-like, and they can be toxic to the snails that feed on them. Its a whole order of organisms, but includes the specie(s) responsible for red tides.

 

[SATAN FISH]

As far as your phosphate level reading zero on your test kit and your tank growing hair algae... I think phosphate test kits are pretty useless. Pretty much, if there are available phosphates in your water, they are going to fuel algae growth & the algae will use all that is available -- so your test kit isn't going to show much. Its the algae that shows that you have phosphates.

Diatoms are the golden brown algae that likes to sort of cover everything in a light sprinkling of algae; its the kind of algae that most of our snails like to eat. Dinoflagellates are different -- the ones often found in tanks are described as appearing brown & snot-like, and they can be toxic to the snails that feed on them. Its a whole order of organisms, but includes the specie(s) responsible for red tides.

Before I was testing my phosphates and it was reading upwards of 5ppm (very high). I since cleaned off every single rock in a salt water scrubbing bucket, then rinsed in a RODI bucket, then back in the tank. Got ALL of the HA off. Promptly hooked up my bulk reef supply phosphate reactor after that and within two weeks my phosphates were bright yellow on the test kit indicating 0. The HA still comes back with ease though. So I agree that there are still phosphates even though the test shows a perfect 0. I just don't know what else I can do to get rid of it. Chaetomorphia is already in the sump and thriving also.

Here are the snails.