Invertebrates

[NCClaudson]

Hello,

I am a newbie to the saltwater aquarium. I recently inherited a Oceanic 58 gal. display aquarium from my father. It came with the lights, tank, sump, coral, fish, crabs, snails, etc., etc. I knew when we moved it, about a month ago now, that there was a good possibility that we would lose some of the inhabitants of the tank but that didn't occur until two weeks had past. Suddenly, overnight, the fire shrimp, starfish, some of the crabs, all of the snails, and the majority of the fantails all died. I took a water sample to my local pet store and had it tested. The PH was a little off and the nitrites had spiked so I took the appropriate measures to correct these problems. Now, however, even though my water is testing out perfect just about every day, my tank will still not support any live snails. I put them in and they die in about a 24 to 48 hour period. I'm kind of using them as guiney pigs to test when I can put other replacements back into the tank yet even these will not live. I have had some success with crabs. They seem fine. The store also tested for copper in the water and it shows not even the slightest trace elements of the metal. Is there anyone that might have an idea what else could be going wrong? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, NC.

[macman7010]

NCClaudson,

Likely NC there is some element in your water that is killing off the snails. Snails being mollusks are somewhat more sensitive to certain elements in the water column, sometimes even more so then say a crab or shrimp. One thing I would test is phosphates. My guess it that since you had a nitrite spike the majority of your bio-filter died off and the excess of all the various animals dying has raised your phosphate levels. If you are finding that your phosphates are high frequent pwc's and some PhosBan or other phosphate removing media will help.

It is very likely that the nitrite spike you mentioned killed all the other inverts so I cant think that there was an element in the water prior to you obtaining the tank that would be causing snails and snails alone to die. When you say your water is testing our "perfect" what all values are being checked?

Salinity
Alkalinity
Calcium
Phosphate
Nitrite
Nitrate
Hardness
Ammonia
Etc??

You could have some trace ammonia in the water, increased nitrates - any one of those things. If you could post the ppm readings of your test values that would be very helpful in determining what might cause the snails to die.

[roka64]

It sounds like a possible acclimation problem. How do you acclimate them? How about stray voltage? Is it possible something broke or cracked, like your heater or ph? Mac had some good ideas also.

[melosu58]

What is the temp. of your tank? I had some problems a while back and when I adjusted temp. Then I did not have anymore problems. I keep my tank at 76 degrees. I dont know it that is the problem but it worked for me.