Snails

[Brandon7878]

Purchased 6 snails today for my clean up crew. Everything was going well when I started. I got 3 sand snails they call them which were on my glass and now they are under the sand and then I got snails that just look like regular snails yet they haven't moved all day since I got them. Does it take them awhile to get used to where they are?

 

[sbash]

Those look like cerith snail shells. Are you sure the snails are still in there? (i.e. can you see inside the hole?)...

If so, they really should be moving after a couple hours. How did you acclimate them?

I find I get a fairly low survival rate inside the first 24 hours. I scoop acclimate for about an hour or two, my acclimation cup floats in the tank water the entire time. usually the snails who live until the next morning, start moving around in the acclimation cup... Some snails are hardier than others, of course. Snails are typically shipped to the LFS without water, so depending on how they 'present the snails' to the customer, a good jag of them could be dead. If the employee just grabs a few shells, without looking for signs of life, you could easily get a handful of dead snails

 

[Brandon7878]

Those look like cerith snail shells. Are you sure the snails are still in there? (i.e. can you see inside the hole?)...

If so, they really should be moving after a couple hours. How did you acclimate them?

I find I get a fairly low survival rate inside the first 24 hours. I scoop acclimate for about an hour or two, my acclimation cup floats in the tank water the entire time. usually the snails who live until the next morning, start moving around in the acclimation cup... Some snails are hardier than others, of course. Snails are typically shipped to the LFS without water, so depending on how they 'present the snails' to the customer, a good jag of them could be dead. If the employee just grabs a few shells, without looking for signs of life, you could easily get a handful of dead snails

Yeah they are in there. I see their heads by the look of it when they are sticking up.

 

[Brandon7878]

Yeah they are in there. I see their heads by the look of it when they are sticking up.

They are alive. I flipped them over and they started moving.

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Ceriths have a high die-off rate in my experience, I'll get 10 from my LFS and end up with around 4 or 5 lively ones. The place I get them from is also notorious for quick acclimating critters but it's the only place I can get any snails.