When Cerith Die do they crawl into the sand?

[jeffww]

I had a dino bloom and I can't find my cerith snails (even though the tank is small). I want to get them out before they start to pollute the water if they actually died but I can't find them. Will they bury themselves into the sand to die?

 

[Bret Brinkmann]

They die where they are, they don't go anywhere special. They go into the sand occasionally to feed. They don't go deep, only an inch from what I've seen with mine.

 

[jeffww]

Sounds like I need a tiny litterbox scoop.

 

[vetteguy53081]

depending on the severity of the dino, snails will generally weaken as dino steals nutrients and as snails die off, they release incredible amounts of nutrients, fueling more dinoflagellate growth.

 

[Bret Brinkmann]

I had a bad dyno outbreak when I used too much POx remover, which dropped them to immeasurably small traces even with my Hanna ULR, and had my lights on for too long. Took months to fully recover but it was worth it.

They probably aren't dead just sick. You can't tell by looking at them. Clean out as much dynos as you can, run carbon for the dyno toxins, remove any POx media, and start dialing back the photo period. The snails should bounce back. They are one of the more resistant species to dyno toxins in my experience.