Most Snails (With Exceptions) Dying or Going Dormant

[JustaSunday]

Writing this to see if there are any ideas out there that have not yet crossed my mind.

My tank is composed of coral and live-rock from a smaller tank which was taken down after being up for nearly 3 years. The only thing replaced was the sand while all rock was kept the same. I had ran into some issues with nutrients bottoming out due to a green hair algae bloom thusly giving rise to dinos and killing the couple astrea snails I had left from the old tank. After getting the dinos into controll to some extent I began to add astrea, cerith and nerites, I have tried multiple online and in person sources but each time the snails seem to move around for a few hours before going still and more often than not flipping themselves with their foot facing the light. I waited about a month to get the dinos even more in check before trying a different species (trochus) to see what the results would be, within the same night one was not moving and stuck to a wall while the other keeps flipping himself upside down. I would also like to note that my pods, calrki clown, ptitho crab and emerald crab seem to be doing just fine.

Edit *Just wanted to note that all snails mentioned besides conch and nassarius are placed on the rock work to begin with.*

I understand that some snails can be odd when first added but I have had no problem keeping a strawberry conch alive as well as several nassarius, every other species seems to pass away or go dormant within the week without fail. When they go dormant they seem to last about 2 weeks before passing away, the only exception to this is a single cerith that has been in the tank close to 7weeks but will not move, it simply remains in its shell and occasionally flips its self on its back. I'm beginning to think there may be some sort of parasite that targets herbivorous snails but somehow the conch is resistant to it. At any rate I am unsure of what is happening as I make sure to slowly acclimate, the dinos are beginning to disappear, I run carbon to take up any toxins, there is food available and my parameters are withing an okay range (posted below). Any thoughts on the matter are appreciated, I can attach pictures later if I catch the trochus going foot up again.

Tank:
20g long aquarium
phos .24ppm
nitrates 15-20ppm
alk 8.6
calc 420
mag 1410
tamp 78.5
3 table spoons carbon replaced every other week

 

[Privateye]

Are you mixing your salt with RO water? I once had a similar situation with a 10 gallon freshwater tank I set up for my mom. The snails just kept dying. I ended up adding Seachem Purigen to the filter and that solved the issue. Guessing it was trace amounts of copper in my case, but who knows.

 

[Subsea]

Your parameters look good.

How did you control/eliminate Dinoflagellets?

Let’s assume that only the Cerith snails are eating the remaining Dinoflagellets.

We do know that zero phosphates will make Dinoflagellets toxic and the first big snail kill can be attributed to that. Let’s assume that Ceriths added are eating some of the remaining Dinoflagellets that are toxic.

 

[JustaSunday]

Are you mixing your salt with RO water? I once had a similar situation with a 10 gallon freshwater tank I set up for my mom. The snails just kept dying. I ended up adding Seachem Purigen to the filter and that solved the issue. Guessing it was trace amounts of copper in my case, but who knows.

This is a great point they I've actually been thinking about. I do use RO, I make it using the 5 stage unit from brs, I thought that maybe it could be due to not changing the resin or carbon etc so I replaced everything that was in it at one time (about 3 months ago now) just to be sure it wasnt the water. I have not yet purchased a copper test kit but I honestly do not think it is copper as the tank was brand new when I added my old rock/ inhabitants to it so I find it unlikely that there are many if any metals in there but you never know.

 

[JustaSunday]

Your parameters look good.

How did you control/eliminate Dinoflagellets?

Let’s assume that only the Cerith snails are eating the remaining Dinoflagellets.

We do know that zero phosphates will make Dinoflagellets toxic and the first big snail kill can be attributed to that. Let’s assume that Ceriths added are eating some of the remaining Dinoflagellets that are toxic.

Thanks for the response,

I've been following a guied made my miami reef, so far I have implemented nutrient controll for phosphate and nitrate to maintain detectable levels, adding silica, UV, daily phyto, changing carbon every other week to controll toxins and limiting waterchanges biweekly to again help maintain nutrients.

I have considered that new snails added are continuing to eat dinos, this could explain some snails suffering but what doesnt make sense is when I add a snail directly to a spot of rock work that is clear of dinos they still meet the same fate of either going dormant or passing away. Maybe they are present enough even in a thin film to cause issues?

 

[slingfox]

I had similar behavior with new snails once: When I added them to the tank (usually the sand), they went crazy and flipped themselves over on the sand. During that time I was battling Dino’s which can be quite toxic to snails. If I were you I would try to hold off on adding any more snails until you completely or near nearly eliminate Dino’s. You could also run an ICP test to make sure there are no major toxins in the tank. Usually the right answer is the most simple one: Snails reacting negatively to the sink toxin.

 

[JustaSunday]

I had similar behavior with new snails once: When I added them to the tank (usually the sand), they went crazy and flipped themselves over on the sand. During that time I was battling Dino’s which can be quite toxic to snails. If I were you I would try to hold off on adding any more snails until you completely or near nearly eliminate Dino’s. You could also run an ICP test to make sure there are no major toxins in the tank. Usually the right answer is the most simple one: Snails reacting negatively to the sink toxin.

This Is unfortunatly what I think is really going on, I will have to wait for the dinos to truly be gone completely. I thought that I was currently at a point where I could slowly add some inverts as most of my sand gets coated with what I believed were diatoms instead (due to dosing sponge excel) but perhaps there are enough dinos still around that they only affect some of my snails, still curious why it wouldnt harm the conch and nassarius but oh well.

 

[Ling_Thing]

This Is unfortunatly what I think is really going on, I will have to wait for the dinos to truly be gone completely. I thought that I was currently at a point where I could slowly add some inverts as most of my sand gets coated with what I believed were diatoms instead (due to dosing sponge excel) but perhaps there are enough dinos still around that they only affect some of my snails, still curious why it wouldnt harm the conch and nassarius but oh well.

Pods pods pods! They love Dino’s and get some phyto to keep the pod population up and it will pass in a couple weeks. Did you say your using a uv sterilizer? Sorry if I missed this but a properly sized one and correct flow is a wonder for Dino’s

 

[Hallowhead]

I have this issue currently and it's due to GHA outside of that, my tank is incredibly clean and nothing to eat readily available. I don't have a single snail survive. Not adding any until I kill GHA

 

[JustaSunday]

Pods pods pods! They love Dino’s and get some phyto to keep the pod population up and it will pass in a couple weeks. Did you say your using a uv sterilizer? Sorry if I missed this but a properly sized one and correct flow is a wonder for Dino’s

Yes! Thank you for the reply, I have added pods twice now and I have been dosing phyto daily for the last 3 months, I switch the supplier I purhcase the phyto from each time to try out differnt strains or if they offer something geared towards dinos I go with that. For the uv I was utilizing a 6watt but found it probably undersized so I started a amazon return but for some reason I was sent a second unit, I have been utilizing both until today as one needed to be returned before the 22nd to get my money back. The uv is ran for 12 hours startring 1 hour after lights out. At any rate the uv may be undersized still so I am considering getting a differnt unit.

 

[JustaSunday]

I have this issue currently and it's due to GHA outside of that, my tank is incredibly clean and nothing to eat readily available. I don't have a single snail survive. Not adding any until I kill GHA

I also have some GHA growing on rocks but my issues isnt that the snails cant find any food, its more that shortly after being added they will go snail foot up and not move for days or weeks. Most pass away, some manage to live but all nassarius species and my conch do just fine.

 

[slingfox]

I have this issue currently and it's due to GHA outside of that, my tank is incredibly clean and nothing to eat readily available. I don't have a single snail survive. Not adding any until I kill GHA

Are you sure you have GHA? I have never heard of GHA being toxic to snails.

 

[Hallowhead]

I also have some GHA growing on rocks but my issues isnt that the snails cant find any food, its more that shortly after being added they will go snail foot up and not move for days or weeks. Most pass away, some manage to live but all nassarius species and my conch do just fine.

It's exactly what happens to me, they go dormant and then bristle worms eat them alive lol it's insane