Crabs and turbo snails having issues

[hllb]

Not sure what’s going on. On the same day, I lost my emerald crab and my pitho crab (sally light foot is fine). I also recently added Mexican turbo snails (maybe 2 weeks ago) and 2 have died while the others don’t do much. They stick to the glass despite a bunch of hair algae on the rocks, and move but very slowly. Fish, corals, Halloween urchin, and peppermint shrimp are fine. Hermits (blue leg and red leg) seem slightly sluggish but not as much as the turbo snails. All my other snails are fine (Dwarf Ceriths, Florida Ceriths, Nerites, and Nassarius).
I’m running carbon (2 weeks old) and purigen and do weekly water changes. Tank is a 32g biocube. The night before my 2 crabs died I added a tiny pvc ring to sit a coral on. That shouldn’t have caused an issue but I took it out anyway.

yesterday’s water test:
Ph 8.0
Alk: 9
Po4: .046
Ca: 430 Red Sea
Mg: 1500
Nitrate: 5
Ammonia: 0
Salinity: 1.026
Temp: 78

 

[Gareth elliott]

Turbo snails ime need longer acclimation periods than other common snails. A small goldfish bowl air stone m, beta heater and match the salinity of incoming water. Over the next 2 days match to your tank salinity then add. My method anyway, i also have bad luck and always get temperate snails that live six months and die. I dont keep turbos, found turbans a suitable replacement that easily thrive and reproduce in the aquarium.

 

[hllb]

Turbo snails ime need longer acclimation periods than other common snails. A small goldfish bowl air stone m, beta heater and match the salinity of incoming water. Over the next 2 days match to your tank salinity then add. My method anyway, i also have bad luck and always get temperate snails that live six months and die. I dont keep turbos, found turbans a suitable replacement that easily thrive and reproduce in the aquarium.

I’ve read conflicting things about turbos being temperate so I did wonder if that was an issue. I’ll look into the turbans. I want something to eat my hair algae and the urchin doesn’t seem to want any lol.

 

[hllb]

I should add, I lost another emerald crab a couple of weeks earlier but chalked it up to murder as the surviving emerald was super mean and chased the first one around a lot.

 

[hllb]

Bumping for any other ideas. No other losses since the original post. I plan on getting some additional crabs and snails this weekend unless someone has ideas on what went wrong. I'd really hate to kill more of them.

 

[hllb]

My plan for new critters:
1 emerald crab (I'd like 2, but I think at 32g it probably needs to be just 1)
3 banded trochus snails (if available)
3 turban snails (if available)

other ideas?

 

[Wolf89]

Try lowering your magnesium.

 

[hllb]

Try lowering your magnesium.

Trying to. It used to be over 1700. I had a bad batch of reef crystals that measured 2400 in newly mixed water. I switched to a different salt maybe 2 months ago or so and it's been slowly coming down. I don't dose it.

I haven't heard of high mg affecting crabs, only snails. But, my research said that 1700 wasn't high enough to cause an issue anyway, that over 1800 would be more suspect. I do about a 15% WC every week but I haven't tested my current salt for Mg in a fresh mix (Coral Sea Pro).

 

[Wolf89]

Are you sure the dead crabs weren't molts?

 

[hllb]

Are you sure the dead crabs weren't molts?

Sadly, yes. I actually saw the pitho die. He slept under the edge of one of my rocks and I saw him kind of release and fall backwards and not right himself. I reached in and put him back in his spot, and he was alive, but barely. He never moved from the spot again probably died right after that. I did not see the emerald die, and it was in the area of my sally lightfoot (who seems to be pretty darn mean) so it's possible she was murdered.

There isn't much info out there on pitho crabs to know how long you could expect one to last, but definitely should've been longer than a couple of months.

 

[hllb]

It's certainly possible the deaths were all a coincidence and the turbo snails couldn't take my tank temperature. That's what I'm hoping, but thought I'd check for other ideas. The fish in the tank wouldn't be an issue - royal gramma, midas blenny, clown goby, ocellaris clown, and pygmy angel.

 

[hllb]

Ok, the snail deaths continue. My nerites are ok and all my tiny snails seem ok (though it’s not as easy to count them but there are still lots). 5 days ago I added 3 ninja star snails, 3 trochus snails, an emerald crab, and 3 neon orange hermits. The hermits immediately disappeared and I haven’t seen them since though they’re likely still alive. The emerald shows up occasionally so he’s good. But I lost 1 trochus and I think all my original turbos are dead.

tonight’s water test (po4 and nitrates are higher than normal maybe because of the dead snails)

Ph: 8.2

Alk: 8.2

Nitrate: 10

Ca: 425

Po4: .077

Mg: 1480

The only thing I can think of is starvation, though I’m guessing no. I have tons of GHA on my rocks. Not much on the glass and most of the snails that died stuck to the glass. I ordered some algae wafers to try.

 

[hllb]

Bumping for #reefsquad

 

[Retro Reefer]

What are you testing Mg with? High levels can be stressful for some inverts.

 

[hllb]

What are you testing Mg with? High levels can be stressful for some inverts.

The recent tests are Salifert. Previously, Red Sea. It's slowly coming down, but I've heard that these levels shouldn't be an issue for the snails (more around 1800+). I had a batch of Reef Crystals salt that tested at 2400 for Mg. Yikes. I switched salts and it's been slowly coming down, though I haven't tested the fresh SW since I first switched.

 

[hllb]

I'll have to figure out why my Mg isn't coming down more quickly. With changing out 4 gallons a week with water that should be around 1350 Mg, it seems like it should be lower than it is now. I'll have to test the fresh mixed water next time I mix it.

 

[Rjramos]

You could try a sea hare on that hair algae, I find that most snails won’t touch it. Careful thought sea hare definitely needs slow acclimation.

 

[WVNed]

I never had real success with inverts until I started adding trace elements to my tank. For years I used Kent Essential elements. I started Tropic Marin Trace 1 and 2 on a doser yesterday. I hope it works as well.
This guy came on my live rock 5 months ago and was about 1 inch across. He lives in my sump.

He is bigger now

 

[Rjramos]

I never had real success with inverts until I started adding trace elements to my tank. For years I used Kent Essential elements. I started Tropic Marin Trace 1 and 2 on a doser yesterday. I hope it works as well.
This guy came on my live rock 5 months ago and was about 1 inch across. He lives in my sump.

He is bigger now

That is a stone crab. Is that a carcass or a molt in the last picture? If you keep growing him you can eat stone crab claws every few months lol !

 

[hllb]

You could try a sea hare on that hair algae, I find that most snails won’t touch it. Careful thought sea hare definitely needs slow acclimation.

I have thought about that, but it's winter and haven't seen one locally. Hopefully I'll have the issue under control before it's warm enough that I'd want to ship livestock.