Did my LFS have sell me empty shells?

[CJ Monty]

I decided to expand my CUC so I got some astrea, cerith and nassarius snails. After acclimating them I noticed some of the astrea and all of the cerith and nassarius snails were not sticking to the bucket. The only snails I currently had were trochus and I had to pry them off the bucket after I acclimated them.

When I put them in the tank I looked into the shell and could not see any snail in the shells. I am inexperienced with these snails so I do not know if they can curl to the point that it looks like an empty shell.

Anyway its been several hours and I do not see any movement. Not sure how nocturnal these guys are putting am starting to get pretty worried and upset.

I do not want to contact the LFS if this is normal behavior and am just overreacting but at the same time I do not want to wait to the point where they tell me it is my fault and will not rectify the situation.

 

[Geebs19]

I think its pretty normal. I added a ton of different stuff last week and some were there from the time I dumped them in at 5pm and were still there when I went to bed at 10pm. When I woke up, everyone had dispersed.

 

[Sailingeric]

I added a few more snails to my tank this week. I thought they were dead, but by the morning they were off doing snail things. I think you will be ok.

 

[cristata.reef]

Even if they did you can't always blame them, especially for sand burrowing snails. They have to grab the snail which retracts into its shell so a dead snail and a live snail have pretty much the same appearance once picked up. I can see how easy it would be to make a mistake like that. On the bright side, snails aren't particularly expensive so they might refund you if you provide proof and ask nicely

 

[starypotter]

Even if they did you can't always blame them, especially for sand burrowing snails. They have to grab the snail which retracts into its shell so a dead snail and a live snail have pretty much the same appearance once picked up. I can see how easy it would be to make a mistake like that. On the bright side, snails aren't particularly expensive so they might refund you if you provide proof and ask nicely

I don't know where you go where snails aren't particularly expensive, sign me up, LFS has them for $4 each.

Also I've gotten empty shells before, called up and brought the shells in and got snails with somebody home. And with some kinds if you look close enough and make sure you watch you can make sure it's okay, usually when they put them in the little specimen cup after a minute or so some start to come out so it's something to look for. I learned my lesson and check each snail for myself now.

 

[cristata.reef]

I don't know where you go where snails aren't particularly expensive, sign me up, LFS has them for $4 each.

Also I've gotten empty shells before, called up and brought the shells in and got snails with somebody home. And with some kinds if you look close enough and make sure you watch you can make sure it's okay, usually when they put them in the little specimen cup after a minute or so some start to come out so it's something to look for. I learned my lesson and check each snail for myself now.

Huh I get dwarf ceriths for 50 cents and most other snails for a $1 each here in SoCal

 

[starypotter]

Huh I get dwarf ceriths for 50 cents and most other snails for a $1 each here in SoCal

Wow that's nice, if I need any more snails I'm going to reef cleaners. At LFS turbo snails and sifting snails are the same price and stuff too. One LFS has 6 for 20, it's quite the deal