Dead snails ???

[kreblak]

I posted a while back about my turbo snails acting "drunk." They were sluggish, moved around with no purpose, and kept falling off things. Well, now two of the four are dead.

The surviving two are wall crawling and cleaning like normal. I found the two deceased snails being consumed by my hermits, who had somehow gotten through the snail's trapdoor.

So what gives? Anyone know why my snails are dead? As a side note, there are now hundreds of small, coiled, white things attached to my glass. They have a red line which spirals through the coil. Everyone here says they are worms, but I swear they look like tiny snails...

This is why I asked Monty about snail reproduction. Do snails spawn and die like salmon, or are those things on my glass worms and my snails died from some unknown disease? I am at a loss, all of the reading I have done fails to explain the deaths.

 

[gcvt]

What were the results of your most recent water tests?

 

[mogurnda]

Hi Kreblak,
There are a lot of posts here and there about turbos crapping out after several months. I can give you no insight. I had bad luck with turbos, so I gave up and have had astreas that have lived for years.
Without my usual waffling, I can say that those are worms. I find that those worms sprout up wherever the snails can't get to them, so they are probably growing now that your snails are dead and not scraping the glass.
Snails will lay egg masses (although I don't know what turbo eggs look like), which then hatch into either little snails (e.g., strombus), or swimmy veligers (e.g., ceriths). Ruppert and Barnes' Invertebrate Zoology book, which you should be able to find in the library if you don't want to fork out big bucks, has a good description of their reproduction.
Although it seems really unlikely that your snails died in a spawning event, I can provide no evidence to the contrary.

 

[kreblak]

Water tests show:
PH 8.3
Ammonia 0.0
Nitrite 0.0
Nitrate 23 ppm
Salinity 1.023
Temperature 78*

The snails had been in the tank for 6 months before they crapped out.

Mogurnda, how effective are astrea snails at diatom/brown algae cleaning? I hate cleaning it by hand. I was pretty sure that the 8 or 9 people who told me they were worms were right, but I just couldn't shake the feeling that my snails spawned and died. Oh well....another brilliant idea of mine squashed!

 

[FISH WHISPERER]

Hi gang,

You know, I've tossed the idea around quite a few times before, and I've already shared the things I think may be important - water flow, temp, predation... I think any environment would be easy to replicate. If water flow isn't too important, circulation could be so easily accomplished with air pumps and either stones or wood diffusers. This eliminates the dangers of impellers - if indeed they pose a real threat. I would think natural predation in our tanks is worse. And do snails themselves eat the eggs? These are all such primitive thoughts, since I'm sure much work has already been done. But that's one of the ways I like to start when tackling a challenge - from scratch (unless of course there's marked success already being done in the particular endeavor).

I question the real threat of impellers - unless the eggs rupture prematurely in that rapid moment of turbulence. Especially when we have seen we can easily "hatch" hundreds of the tiny snails without any problem.

I also wonder if there's any seasonal preference? Uh oh... I'm thinking "snail tank"!

That Ruppert and Barnes book seems like a perfect place to start. I'm going to see if they have it at Barnes & Noble the next time I'm in browsing. I don't really have the resources to set up any new systems, so it's mostly a matter of curiosity right now. I suppose I'm mostly curious why the tiny ones reproduce with no problem while the larger ones do not. Those little buggers are the source of much headache in my system in that they continually clog up the return nozzles which provide all the circulation in the tank. I used to love having a bunch of big fat snails in the tank.

What do ya'll think about the heat factor? It would be kind of interesting to establish a factor which might contribute to some folks having snails which seem to "live forever" and those of us who have them thin out in a comparatively quick manner. I've long thought about the temp. being a factor. I run warmer systems (+82) to keep a constant temp throughout the year. I used to run a lot cooler, without corals, and I seem to remember my snails lasting much longer. Anyway, that's what I seem to think was my problem. But Kreblak, you're running 78* and that seems to be pretty normal. Dave, what's the temp in your system where you've had those astreas for such a long time? And do you have any growing hermits in with them?
Good stuff!

 

[Ken b]

Hey Monty!

Glad to see you're still lurking around!

Long time no hear. I hope you and yours are all well.

Drop me a line.

 

[mogurnda]

Hi Guys,
Sorry, I missed this until now. The tank temp for the astreas runs 76-78 winter, 82-85 summer. Without going into the history, there are too many hermits (25?) for the 20 gallon. There used to be more. Although they ride the snails on occasion, I see no evidence of predation. 11 astreas last May, 11 this May. The blue legs and scarlets seem to prefer smaller shells like cerith and nassarius.
I actually have a mix of snails, including ceriths and the little strombus maculata, that all seem to be doing well. There is no trace of brown algae. People rave about trochus snails as well, but I have no algae problems, so I'll keep what I have.
Monty, I am wondering about your statements regarding "small ones breed, big ones don't." If you mean the little strombus multiply in tanks, while snails like astrea don't, I believe it's because the two types of snails have different early development. Strombus hatch as little snails, so they don't need a plankton-safe environment. Most of the bigger snails, like turbos, have a planktonic stage, so the larvae will be very sensitive to impeller and any mechanical filtration.