I keep losing snails on a steady basis..... I find them in the morning upside down and put them against the glass.... sometimes they'll climb back up and do it again... and sometimes they're already dead...I've got turbos and redfoots... it's been mostly the turbo's lately... I have alot of other inverts and they seem to be doing fine... PH, Temp etc are all good.... my nitrates have been giving me trouble and are probably around 30ppm right now.... but the rest of the inverts are doing well... any ideas ???????
Snail suicide !!!
- Thread starter c0mf0rt
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
msuburg
Aquarium Advice Regular
Hey there, sorry to hear of the troubles!
Any idea on source of the nitrates? Are you cycling? That's a bummer, especially with the turbos, because they're not exactly small! and when they die, those large bodies provide lots of nasties for the water. What's all in your tank, could you post some more info for us?
-matt
Any idea on source of the nitrates? Are you cycling? That's a bummer, especially with the turbos, because they're not exactly small! and when they die, those large bodies provide lots of nasties for the water. What's all in your tank, could you post some more info for us?
-matt
BillyZ
Aquarium Advice Addict
high nitrates could deffinetly be at least part of the problem. invert do not handle nitrates well. I'll second matt's questions. how old is the tank and give us a little more info about your setup (any equip, lr etc)
lando
Aquarium Advice Addict
Could be that the snails fall and are unable to right themselves. THey then become fair game for opportunistic feeders like crabs and such. Also, do you have enough algea to support them? A lot of times snails are bought to clear up an algea problem and then starve because they eat it all.
Dvoros
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I stopped buying turbos and such snails for this reason, i since switched to Trochus(Turban) snails and they have been doing a great job on the glass and rock, plus they can right themselves if they fall, love em!!!
The tanks a few months old.... it's done cycling but I've just gotten a protein skimmer working within the past week or so..... I missed a few snails early and I think that's definitely a reason for the nitrates being high... I've been doing water changes though... about twenty to thirty percent once a week for the last two weeks trying to get the nitrates where I need 'em....... I'd like it if you guys could tell me how to edit my profile so I dont' have to keep typing everything in my tank every time I ask one of these questions.... thanks......
Ok........ profile is updated with tank specifics...... also I have alot of I think diatom algae in the tank, red/brown algae on the glass and some rocks.... they seem to eat that stuff up like it's going out of style....
austinsdad
Aquarium Advice Addict
Read your new updated 
profile. A "few" months old may be too few for such a substantial bio-load IMO. I'm thinking that could be the source of your nitrates. Need to watch your fish closely at this point. New tanks, lots of fish, and not-to-good water quality can lead to disease. Got a QT 
if treatment is needed? Maybe nitrates @ 20 isn't critical yet, but it could get worse, and since the inverts are dropping, sounds like you've definitely got to get a handle on it? Watch the feeding amounts too. Maybe only once a day?
Believe me, I found out the hard way about adding too may fish too soon.
profile. A "few" months old may be too few for such a substantial bio-load IMO. I'm thinking that could be the source of your nitrates. Need to watch your fish closely at this point. New tanks, lots of fish, and not-to-good water quality can lead to disease. Got a QT if treatment is needed? Maybe nitrates @ 20 isn't critical yet, but it could get worse, and since the inverts are dropping, sounds like you've definitely got to get a handle on it? Watch the feeding amounts too. Maybe only once a day?Believe me, I found out the hard way about adding too may fish too soon.
Yeah I'm only feeding them once a day right now. Sometimes only every other day while I try and get the nitrates leveled out. I'm thinking the protein skimmer should help quite a bit. We'll see. I might not have let the snails have enough time to acclimate. It's wierd. I mean all of my other inverts seem to be doing fine. It's just the snails and a few of the smaller hermit crabs. But the shrimp etc. are getting along great.
Similar threads
