What is killing my snails?

[ReefDreamz]

My tank is about 7 months old. I have trochus and astrea snails that have been in the tank for months. For the last few weeks I have to pull out 4 or 5 dead or dying atrea and trochus snails every few days. Weird thing is I also have nassarius and bumblebee snails which are sopposed to swarm and eat dead things but they don't touch the dying trochus and astreas. Nothing in my tank has really changed since the dying began. I do have 5 to 10 medium sized scarlet hermits but I've never seen them kill or eat a snail. Theres no visible algae on my rocks but I do have some spots of algae on my sand and I do get film algae on the glass. Temp is 77-78, pH 8.2-8.3. No swings in alk or pH.

Params:

 

[jabberwock]

Probably hermit crabs.

 

[Spare time]

I doubt its the hermits imo. I find them to be unintentional scapegoats more than anything. Especially if their shells are not emptied out of their gunk.

 

[TokenReefer]

I've heard high mg can negatively affect snails. That's just from gathered info tho so take it fwiw

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

My tank is about 7 months old. I have trochus and astrea snails that have been in the tank for months. For the last few weeks I have to pull out 4 or 5 dead or dying atrea and trochus snails every few days. Weird thing is I also have nassarius and bumblebee snails which are sopposed to swarm and eat dead things but they don't touch the dying trochus and astreas. Nothing in my tank has really changed since the dying began. I do have 5 to 10 medium sized scarlet hermits but I've never seen them kill or eat a snail. Theres no visible algae on my rocks but I do have some spots of algae on my sand and I do get film algae on the glass. Temp is 77-78, pH 8.2-8.3. No swings in alk or pH.

Params:

Idk about that icp, but why is rubidium so high! I add rubidium every day and it's always undetectable.

You say no algae could it be they are not eating enough?

 

[Quietman]

Not sure on size of tank and how many snails added as CUC, but if you're taking out 3-4 every few days for weeks, that's a lot of snails. And since it's over that much time, I doubt it's any pathogen, I would think that'd be all at once and likely all species. As mentioned above, they could very likely not be getting enough to eat.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

^

 

[Alexraptor]

Are the dead snails covered in clear goo/slime that hangs like snot when you pull them out?

 

[ReefDreamz]

Not sure on size of tank and how many snails added as CUC, but if you're taking out 3-4 every few days for weeks, that's a lot of snails. And since it's over that much time, I doubt it's any pathogen, I would think that'd be all at once and likely all species. As mentioned above, they could very likely not be getting enough to eat.

Tank is 150 gal and I don't remember how many I added but I did go conservative and added a lot fewer than the vendor suggested which is often way more than needed. My trochus spawned and had babies twice so I do have a lot more than I put in. Ive probably pulled out 20 dead ones over the last 2 weeks. Only thing that makes sense to me is not enough food but I do have some algae in spots on the sand and on the bases of some rock at sand level so idk.

 

[jabberwock]

I doubt its the hermits imo. I find them to be unintentional scapegoats more than anything. Especially if their shells are not emptied out of their gunk.

I watched a lot of steel cage matches between my snails and my hermits when I chose to keep them. I intervened when I was able.

 

[ChiCity]

you sure you don’t have leopard polyclads…

 

[jabberwock]

you sure you don’t have leopard polyclads…

Oh my!

 

[ReefDreamz]

Heres one on his way out. Barley stuck to the glass hasnt moved in days looking sad

Heres a dead one in the tank (terrible picture)

And heres 2 dead ones I pulled out today

 

[ReefDreamz]

you sure you don’t have leopard polyclads…

Oh boy I hope not. I look through my tank carefully at night with a flashlight often and haven't seen one but you never know.

 

[jabberwock]

Are they all from the same suppliler? Maybe try a different supplier, same species.

 

[olonmv]

High magnesium levels make snails lethargic to the point of death. Have you tested your mag levels. Maybe Icp is off and showing lower than actual?

 

[ReefDreamz]

High magnesium levels make snails lethargic to the point of death. Have you tested your mag levels. Maybe Icp is off and showing lower than actual?

Mag levels tested twice daily.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Agree on High Mag and acclimation is very important for them. Many times, its the ones that were not acclimated or acclimated long enough that fall down.
I doubt if ICP is wrong . Calcium is also important with them. I have 3-4 year old snails in my system

 

[ReefDreamz]

Agree on High Mag and acclimation is very important for them. Many times, its the ones that were not acclimated or acclimated long enough that fall down.
I doubt if ICP is wrong . Calcium is also important with them. I have 3-4 year old snails in my

Agree that acclimating is important for snails but my snails were acclimated months ago and many were born in my tank so I don't think acclmation is an issue here unless it can have an extremely long delayed effect. As for mag my mag has been between 1500 and 1400 for most of the life of my tank. Seems strange snails would start dying all of the sudden after already being at that mag level for a significant amount of time.

 

[chimbo84]

Totally not able to add anymore value to this thread above what others have stated but just wanted to say “hot dayum that fish room is pretty”.

FWIW, the only time I had a large snail die off, I had dinoflagellates in my tank. Your nutrient levels don’t cause concern in this regard but it is something to keep in mind.