Snails

[aldo]

This is the first time I'm writing a post . Here goes.

66 gal tank - 40 lbs. live rock , fish doing very well,
tank is 4 weeks old water # are good.
NO LUCK WITH SNAILS. Tryed 3 times Put them in the tank all is well
next morning DEAD DEAD what gives? tryed turning them over --
dead
Please help I'm new and green as a LIME


Aldo

 

[two11devan]

How are you acclimating the snails? What are your water conditions? Snails and other inverts are very sensitive to a whole bunch of changes in the water and they have to be very carefully acclimated....i found this out when i acclimated my cleaner shrimp too fast and i found him dead a couple of days later...I have heard the best way to acclimate any thing is to use some airline tubing with a knot tied at one end and setting it up so it slowly drips your tank water into the container your new live stock comes in....let the water drip into the container very slowly for at leat an hour or two before introducing it into your QT or your tank.
Im pretty new at this also so someone please correct me if im wrong

 

[aldo]

Will try. Thank you very much.

One more thing --With little experience, I bought an
Arrow crab. Copperband Butterfly and Rock Beauty.
Now I'm being told they are not REEF SAFE. Is this true?
Do I have to get rid of them?
I really don't want to.

Thanks

 

[gooyferret]

I have heard that the butterfilies and beauty will nip at corals from time to time depending on hunger and eating habits. They are not recommended for coral tanks. also i would also suggest buying a couple books on marine fish and corals to broaden your knowledge of fish before purchase JMO. What is your nitrates at? Snails and inverts are very sensitive to nitrates and a drastic change in water conditions. Also inverts prefer about 72-78* for tempeture. HTH

 

[ReefLady]

aldo,

What kind of snails? Astreas are famous for not being able to "right" themselves if tipped on their backs.

My first suspect would be acclimation procedures. Most mobile invertebrates are pretty senstive to changes in pH, salinity, & temp.
If you could provide some tank parameters, that would be greatly helpful -- temp, salinity, etc. I've always and forever run our reef tank(s) at 1.025 at 80F - 82F. Have never had a problem. Low salinity is often an issue, but more in the long-term range. Again, I'd first suspect acclimation.

I have a Copperband and the fish is awesome. It'll eat any feather dusters you might have, but will also chow all Aiptasia. I really don't have much for softies in our tank, so I can't speak for compatibility with those. They can be really difficult to get to eat though, so keep an eye on it.
The Arrow crab would worry me the most - they are notorious for not only eating all of your bristle worm population, but hermit crabs as well if you have any.

As far as the Coral Beauty goes - most dwarf angels are pretty risky as far as coral-nipping tendencies, but they tend to prefer LPS (Open Brains, etc.).

Good luck with everything, and don't stop asking questions!

8)