Turbo Snail Acclimation

[JerryJ]

HI...I've been having trouble getting turbo snails to live more than a couple of weeks in my 29 G tank. I generally quarantine the snails in a fishless tank for a week or so, then add them to the display tank. Although there is a lot of hair algae for them and I think my water chemistry is good, they tend to die after a week or so. I'm wondering if I've been acclimating them too soon. I generally do about a 1.5 to 2 hour acclimation, but maybe the beginning or end of the process is too abrupt. Of course, since I quarantine them, there are two acclimations, but the quarantine and display tanks are usually pretty close in water parameters. I guess my question is, suppose it is an acclimation problem...is that consistent with a several-week survival? How long does an improperly-acclimated snail take to die? I would have thought they might die pretty fast if the water parameters changed too abruptly.

 

Thanks,

Jerry

[smallreef]

I have never acclimated snails.. other than temp and pour a bit of water in their bag...nor quarantined them...

i usually have about a 5-10% death within the first month.. .but i think that is more due to the numbers we put in vice how we are acclimating them?

I know I over buy snails and other clean up crew members... and some just dont make it...

[Marc Weaver]

I have read that copper usage in a tank, even by the person who owned the quarantine tank before you if you acquired it used, can kill inverts. Some say it is absorbed into the caulk and anything else in the tank and can leach back out. Turbos and astrea snails have been very easy for me, like smallreef I just float the bag for an hour and put them in and have never lost an abnormal amount.

[zygote2k]

Turbo snails, Ninja snails, Margaritas all tend to do poorly if the water temperature is higher than they are used to. Many of these snails come from cooler waters than our reef tanks. You're slowly cooking the snails to death.

[Coral Hind]

Yes, If not acclimated properly they tend to die right away. Your acclimation times seem fair. I drip acclimate my inverts. Why do you isolate the new snails for a week? If you are trying to prevent something like ich then they would need to be isolated for two months. I agree with Marc that if you have used meds in the QT system it could be a cause as well as if the QT system doesn't have a fully mature filter ammonia could be hurting them. I would try the next batch straight into the tank and see how they survive.

 

Do you have large hermits or something else like even a fish in the tank that might be knocking them over and eating them? List up what you have in the tank and we might be able to spot something.

[flooddc]

Some turbo snails can't get back on their own once they fall on their back and eventually died.

[JerryJ]

Folks,

 

Thanks for the responses. I know about the lingering problems if copper or other meds have been used, but I'm sure I've never used such in this tank. It used to be a FW tank; I went marine about 2 years ago and the turbos I bought then did fine. I also have a couple of margarita snails that I put in a long time ago, and they're doing OK. I also have a fire shrimp that seems happy. I have no crabs other than blue leg and red leg hermits, and they don't seem interested in harming snails. The fish (Banggai cardinal, yellow assessor, tailspot blenny, possum wrasse, and neon goby) shouldn't be an issue.

 

I know a 1 to 2 week quarantine isn't guaranteed to eliminate parasites that may be hitchhiking on the snails, but I figured it couldn't hurt. Maybe ich might just decide to pop off the snails during the quarantine. I've checked ammonia and nitrites in the QT tank and no problems there. Nitrates in the display tank are very low, but about 20 ppm in the quarantine tank. Could a week of exposure to 20 ppm nitrates do this??

 

Thanks,

Jerry

[Steve175]

I disagree that your QT process couldn't hurt: it adds another stressful event (temp transition, salinity transition, chemistry transition) to their history. I QT all fish and all

coral, but zero inverts. Put 'em straight in and see if it helps.