Help! Sand snails die instantly as soon as they touch sand surface!

[Yoonsuk Choi]

Recently, in one of my reef tanks, all Nassarius snails died. So I put new several Nassarius snails.
But as soon as they dived in the water, they seemed like they don't want touch sand surfaces.
Soon after, they decided to crawl on the sand, but they acted like they were burnt by sand.
And sood all dead.
FYI, all my corals, fishes, shrimps, and sand star fishes are OK, including sand shifting Diamond Goby.
only snails which touched sand can't survive.

To test weather it's water problem or sand surface problem, I tried to put one snail in the quarantine box with new sand, in the problematic reef tank.
The snail was fine in the quarantine box with new sand. But as soon as it escaped the quarantine box and fell onto the sand, it showed the same symptom, so I took it out to save it.
I put this snail into other tank which has no problem, it seemed OK.

Have any of you guys had this problem?
Anyone know the reason?

Anyway, I'll try to clean sand surface with Syphoning.
And see how it goes.

 

[bensoo00]

What is that yellowish stuff on the sand surface? Do the snails only react like that on that specific area of the sand? If so, getting rid of that part of the sand would probably be the issue if it is just the sand that's the problem. I don't really know what else could be causing that and as you tried, putting the snails in a QT was fine, so honestly I'd just get rid of that sand or find out what caused it to have that stuff on it.

 

[Yoonsuk Choi]

That stuff looks like kind of algae or bacteria film to me. And snails react like that on all surface. My sandbed is very deep, like 4~5 inches, so I really want to avoid replacing all sandbed. Hopefully just cleaning surface with syphoning might solve this.

 

[slingfox]

You may want to sample that brown growth on the sand and post an image from under a microscope so it can be identified.

 

[Yoonsuk Choi]

I don't have a microscope... are there toxic algae or bacteria to snails?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I would suggest to post a pic of your tank, and list all parameters. Tell us how you acclimate the snails to your tank.

Inverts are very sensitive to water quality, but it’s generally not that hard to add snails. Something seems wrong about your tank to me if they die upon touching the sand. Need all the details , there is not enough info here.

 

[TokenReefer]

Does it react the same way if you place it on the white parts of the sand (seen toward the edges in the video)? I've had snails react similarly negatively toward dinos on the sandbed...

 

[Yoonsuk Choi]

I would suggest to post a pic of your tank, and list all parameters. Tell us how you acclimate the snails to your tank.

Inverts are very sensitive to water quality, but it’s generally not that hard to add snails. Something seems wrong about your tank to me if they die upon touching the sand. Need all the details , there is not enough info here.

Maybe these will help?

 

[TokenReefer]

Maybe these will help?

Not me personally but maybe someone else will see something in there Good luck!

 

[Yoonsuk Choi]

Does it react the same way if you place it on the white parts of the sand (seen toward the edges in the video)? I've had snails react similarly negatively toward dinos on the sandbed...

Yes all parts of the sand, and I have dinos here and there in my tank too. Maybe this type of dino is toxic to snails?

 

[slingfox]

Yes all parts of the sand, and I have dinos here and there in my tank too. Maybe this type of dino is toxic to snails?

Your very low nitrates and phosphates for an extended period of time puts your tank at risk for dinos. Yes some types of dinos are very toxic to snails.

 

[MartinM]

Did you use silica sand? Some types of silica sand can kill snails because the grain are too sharp.