Trochus Snail Help Plz

[chilake08]

So i'm having issues with Trochus snails. All of my other snails are doing fine, and unless they get munched on by my mean blue hermit crab looking for a new home they are healthy. But the Trochus snails I have continually seem to be dying. I thought everything was fine, but I looked in my tank and I think another one is dead.

None of them die at the same time, they are the only snail having issues that I can see, and its always after they have been acclimated......crawl and actively eat for at a minimum 1.5 weeks. The end result is I see the snail recoiled up into its shell and usually turned over.......and then it dies. I've even righted some of them and put them back on the rocks, where they will move for a little bit, and then fall back over and die.

I dunno what is going on.

 

[ostrow]

Send a photo of one. Wondering what kind of snail it is (just because a seller said it was a trochus does not mean it is. Lost of folks sell Margarita snails as trochus. They are cooler water species that do not do well at typical reef tank temperatures).

 

[chilake08]

So I attached an image of another one that recently just died. It probably isn't dead yet but this seems to be what happens.........its going along fine and then falls off and lands upside down like this. Then it doesn't make any effort to move and eventually just dies. I've flipped them over in the past but the always end up on their back again.

They are Trochus snails. And none of the other types of snails (cerith, nerite, nassarius) are having any problems. The Trochus snails die at random and i'll just come up to my tank and they will be like this. I'm really at a loss.

 

[ostrow]

Looks like astraea to me.

 

[coralfish]

That is not a trochus.

 

[mystery_reef]

looks like a trochus to me.

 

[arioch]

Looks like an astraea to me.

 

[chilake08]

well i'm not professional in terms of snail identification, but after doing some subsequent research I still think they are Trochus snails...........for one i've seen them right themselves. I guess its one thing if they are Astraea, because then then are dieing because they can't right themselves........but even righted i've seen some of these snails just perish on the sand bed. I don't know what to do because I don't have a good reason for why just these snails are dying.

 

[arioch]

The "not righting themselves" thing is misleading because all snails can do that. IME.

 

[mystery_reef]

The "not righting themselves" thing is misleading because all snails can do that. IME.

flip a couple astrea and turbos upside down with nothing nearby and let me know how that goes...
how bout instead of id'ing the snails, that are most likely trochus as the OP states, let's try and figure out why they might be dying.

 

[ostrow]

flip a couple astrea and turbos upside down with nothing nearby and let me know how that goes...
how bout instead of id'ing the snails, that are most likely trochus as the OP states, let's try and figure out why they might be dying.

Beat me to it!

But the id is part of the answer. If astraeas, which I believe they are, mystery solved. Those snails do not tend to live long in glass boxes, period.

But one thing we don't know is how many you have. If you did the 1 snail per gallon on these, that is part of the problem -- as it is more like 1 per 5 gallons max that is advisable.

 

[mystery_reef]

agreed i do about 1 per 5 gallons, that way they dont starve. i love trochus but stick to astreas because of the price and availability. i have had some astreas in my tank for years now, i dont replenish my clean up crew often if at all.

 

[Whaledriver]

Just to toss out an idea....
Maybe you should try to run carbon for a few weeks before the next batch of snails. Snails are sensitive to metals and certain pollutants.
Its worth a try.
The other thing is make sure all your water parameters are in line.Ca,Alk,Mg,Sg,temperature

 

[chilake08]

So obviously i'm a little slow on the response. But i'm wondering if it is a two part problem. I am still working to correct my Ca-Alk-Mg balance, but the other parameters have been fairly in line and consistent. Couple small spikes but nothing out of the ordinary. The other issue is the "boom" of extras. Mainly a big spike in asterina starfish (which is now going down) and a more recent spike of tiny snails (couldn't find their appropriate name). So i'm wondering if the stress of shifting paramaters combined with high competition for food is what lead to these guys' deaths. So far the remaining Trochus snails are doing fine, but then again this usually comes randomly and sometimes weeks apart. I only had 7ish Trochus snails, and then a mix of Nassuarius, Nerite, and Cerith as well. The total population of snails was 25ish.

 

[Whaledriver]

What size tank/
Snails like stable paramiters so once you get things in line and stable they should stop dieing. If they are a clod water species they will probly keep dieing off.

 

[chicagophil]

I had 2 trochus ,1 or 2 inches- they remind me of Queen Chonch - the kind you can buy on the beach in Jamiaca..

I have only 1 now, its beedy little eye sticks out of the sand everyone and a while. it had a big "foot" with which is spins it self over.

i had a tank fallow for a week and one of them died. I never had more than 1 trochus in a tank at once. i hear they like to scavange alot. i bought them back in October.

 

[arioch]

Are you sure they're "trochus" and not "strombus"?

 

[RainbowTurtle]

Send a photo of one. Wondering what kind of snail it is (just because a seller said it was a trochus does not mean it is. Lost of folks sell Margarita snails as trochus. They are cooler water species that do not do well at typical reef tank temperatures).

Don't know how they'd manage that. They look nothing alike. Margaritas are great snails, but die off quick because they are meant for cooler waters. Their shells are round and mostly black. Trochus snails have almost a pyramid shape, fat on bottom and rises to a point, but with much more girth than a cerith snail which is more cone hat shaped. They also have reddish and white, to purplish and white stripes. You really can't mix them up.

 

[RainbowTurtle]

So I attached an image of another one that recently just died. It probably isn't dead yet but this seems to be what happens.........its going along fine and then falls off and lands upside down like this. Then it doesn't make any effort to move and eventually just dies. I've flipped them over in the past but the always end up on their back again.

They are Trochus snails. And none of the other types of snails (cerith, nerite, nassarius) are having any problems. The Trochus snails die at random and i'll just come up to my tank and they will be like this. I'm really at a loss.

That isn't a trochus.

 

[ct_vol]

Really old post, but looks like a red Trochus. They look very similar to Astrea, but have a mottled foot and the same sensory tentacles that extend from their mantle.