My Snails Are All Comatose

[Porksound]

Hi all, I've been reading these forums for a bit and there's a lot of good knowledge here!

I've been doin' reefs for several years but I got out of it 3 years ago. Now I'm back. I'm no expert but I'm no beginner either... but, here's the thing:

I have a 40 gallon tank which finished it's cycle 5 days ago

(0 amm, 0 Nitrite, 5 Nitrate, 8.0 PH-a little low, I know-, and salinity is 1.024, 79 degrees)

There are 2 Chromis damsels doing VERY well that have been in residence since the Nitrite got to zero.

I've got the lovely brown carpet bloom of algae goin' so I went out and got my workers... 7 left hand hermits, and 15 Turbo's (damned LFS slipped 3 Astreas into my turbo's, but I'm not worried about that really).

I've never had trouble with snails/crabs etc EVER in the past but these snails have all descended into comatose mode. I acclimated them of course. In a matter of maybe 10 minutes they all stopped moving and haven't moved in 24 hours. I've checkd a few and they're alive, just REALLY disinterested, hehehe. I don't mean to make light of it, it's making me crazy and I'm worried that these snails are suffering (in their own snail way). I just can't get my finger on what might cause this!

Did i not acclimate long enough? I've recently heard lots of people saying snails are sensitive to this, I always did a standard fish acclimation job with them in the past with no worries...

The crabs are doing quite nicely BTW...

Any ideas, suggestions??? ... ...

P

 

[reefrunner69]

Did i not acclimate long enough?

This would be my guess, snails are very sensitive to changes in salinity, ph and temp.

 

[Porksound]

Cheers, thanks for the quick reply... so what now? Will they get it together or have I stupidly mangaged to kill a pack of snails?

Common sense tells me I should not reomve them at this point, since that's jut going to be a greater shock... Am I right about that?

p

 

[jackdp]

I locked myself out of the house once with a bag of nerite/bumblebee snails floating in the tank. Well, until I got home my fiance came home and "saved" all the snails by dumping them into the tank quick. It took a couple of days but if I recall most all survived that rather nasty shock. I'm sure it will depend on the difference between the shipping water chem and your tank.

 

[reefrunner69]

Common sense tells me I should not reomve them at this point, since that's jut going to be a greater shock... Am I right about that?

To be honest I'm not sure. I might try placing them just above the waterline in the aquarium so they can finish acclimating themselves, if they are still alive.

 

[Biggen]

To be honest I'm not sure. I might try placing them just above the waterline in the aquarium so they can finish acclimating themselves, if they are still alive

Didn't I read a article by Dr. Ron that stated the he always acclimates snails by simply sticking them near the water line so that half of their body is in and the other half is out of the water? This way they can acclimate themselves without anyone have to do anything.

I may try that on my next batch of snails to see if it works. I guess as long as they don't fall in the water before they have had enough time to acclimate it should be alright.

 

[Porksound]

Yeah, they're alive still... just not clinging to anything, and not moving much at all... I'm sure they would nopt cling to the glass for me.

Oh, well... sounds like a lesson learned the hard way. I hate when a little ignorance causes something like this.

Honestly I've kept 3 other tanks over the years, and I've never heard of this or seen it be a problem! Is this new knowledge?

Weird, oh well, I know now!

Thanks guys... I appreciate all of the help!

p

 

[reefrunner69]

Honestly I've kept 3 other tanks over the years, and I've never heard of this or seen it be a problem! Is this new knowledge?

It's kinda like that kid that can ride his bike along the top of a fence, until someone teaches him about gravity

 

[possum]

 

[ellisz]

Is there an easy way to get snails to release the glass? I have two that I will need to transport to the new tank and the last time I move the current tank, I could not get the snail to let go. He was at the bottom so I left a little water in there for him and moved the tank to a different wall.

 

[gooyferret]

How do you get the snail to attach to the glass while holding him every snail i have had doesnt?

 

[reefrunner69]

I've actually never tried it, just read about it plenty of times, I would imagine you need to hold the snails very still to get them to come out and it still may take a few minutes.