Mystery snails & Seachem Excel

[jlk]

Hi everyone! I purchased 3 mystery snails on monday, acclimated them, & they seemed very happy exploring my main tank. Until wednesday...after doing a pwc, i dosed Excel & Flourish Comp. Within 15mins, the snails stopped climbing the tank & fell off dead. Unsure if they were actually dead, i left them alone the last two days. They never recovered. So, i returned them today & received 3 replacements which are now housed in another tank that only gets Flourish Comp & they are all over the place. I always wondered why there never has been any pond snails in my main tank while theres a couple in tanks i dont dose Excel. So, does Excel kill snails???

 

[jetajockey]

How much excel did you add? The initial 5x dose? It can be a killer in large doses, and inverts tend to be particularly sensitive to it.

 

[jlk]

I added 3 capfuls rather than recommended 1 capful per 10gal folowing a big pwc (55gal tank). The last time i added any was on sunday (1capful). Im guessing it was too much for them...

 

[jetajockey]

Sounds like it. I've heard it helps to dilute it with water first before adding it, at least it seems to help keep from melting vals and anacharis anyway. I've never bothered to do it and haven't had an issue with anything in particular, so I'm not sure. Given that it's a very effective algaecide (and as you've seen, an invert killer), I'd be wary of big doses in the future. I'm not sure why they have that on their dosing instructions, it can easily do more harm than good.

 

[jlk]

Thanks!! I will be a bit more leery of using it in the future! Lesson learned too late, unfortunately.