Are snails guaranteed to die if they are flipped over?

[richardhmc]

This might sound like a stupid question

I bought about 11 snails yesterday and while bringing them home, they were clumped in a ball, all stuck to each other. Assuming they would disperse, i jsut threw the snail ball into the tank and went to sleep. This morning, I found half of them dead!

Besides crabs that eat them if they are exposed, do they die if they are on their backs? They were trochus snails

 

[thirty5]

The big snails cannot turn themselves over! At least all the nerites that I have cannot!

I usually pull them apart when i get them and place them in the tank either on the rocks or on the sand.

 

[richardhmc]

yeah i should have done that... now the crabs are having a feast and soon after homes to live in

 

[thirty5]

yeah i should have done that... now the crabs are having a feast and soon after homes to live in

Just make sure that none of them if many do not just decompose. That is a recipe for disaster. Just adding more and more ammonia. If the crabs are feasting i guess that is ok. But if any are just lying there dead, better to just get them out!

 

[lfsmarineguy]

Did you acclimate the snails when you got them home?

 

[richardhmc]

I left the bag in my tank to adjust temperature difference but not the drip method like I do with corals and fish. I guess I should drip acclimate them too. Im used to just throwing inverts in and them doing fine

 

[lfsmarineguy]

Inverts are sensitive to changes in SG, especially snails. You'll get less death from the start and they'll live longer if you acclimate them. Some places run copper with their fish (or lower salinity) so unless you know whether they do or not I wouldn't toss them in with the fish you are dripping, either keep them by themselves or with other inverts.

 

[TRIGGERMAN]

my never fail method for acclimation..float for 20 minutes then add about 1/10 the water volume of the bag in tank water,after 15-20 mins add another 1/10 or so of tank water 15-20 do it again. I have never lost a fish,coral or invert in my life using this method and it works for everyone I tell to do it also. This should be a sticky..so many people kill livestock due to improper acclimation.

 

[richardhmc]

yeah thats the same I do with my corals/fish... never done it with inverts but now ill start

 

[thirty5]

yeah thats the same I do with my corals/fish... never done it with inverts but now ill start

I think that your problem here is that the snails were not able to upright themselves, and the crabs killed them! I have never acclimated my cuc's. Well I always float them, but I have never had a problem. I am not saying that it is "right" but is just what I do.

Did all your snails die? or just a couple of them?

 

[richardhmc]

About 6 or 7 of them did. Yeah that's what I assumed too.. that they couldn't upright themselves.. but i find it odd that they are all dead just cause they are flipped over. and it wasnt like they were ripped apart, when i checked on them in the morning, just their foot was hanging out and that was it

 

[rookie07]

so many people kill livestock due to improper acclimation.

Ive heard it can take fish up to 2 weeks to fully acclimate.

Also, i always find tons of snails and what not in tide pools. These tide pools vary greatly in temp and SG throughout the day.....doesnt that debunk the whole acclimation theory? Ive always wondered about this.

 

[lfsmarineguy]

Tidepool species have adapted to that kind of harsh environment where temp and salinity can vary greatly over the course of hours, or they just ended up stuck there during the last tide and may not make it. It really comes down to the variance between your water and the water the snails are coming from. If it's close it's not that big of a deal, but if there's a moderate gap between the parameters than you need to give them time to acclimate. I would acclimate everything just to be safe but snails do tend to be overlooked because they have something of a "disposable" status.

 

[basiab]

Turned over snails can die just because they can't eat but usually the problem is they have no protection from predators. Most snails can right themselves except for Astreas. Hermits can kill any snail so I have stopped keeping hermits.

 

[ZANYMASTER]

And wrasses too as my Snail population has dwindled.

 

[Chris Jury]

Astraea spp. snails sometimes have trouble turning themselves over if they aren't able to get ahold of something (i.e., turned over on a flat surface, such as sand). All other species of snail common in the hobby including Trochus spp. are fully able to right themselves IME.

Snails very often don't get the best treatment in captivity IME, probably because they are relatively cheap and a lot of folks have the idea that they are extraordinarily hardy for whatever reason. Instead, they are just as susceptible to abuse and water quality issues as most other inverts IME and I think this idea that snails die if they get flipped on their back is a meme that absolves us of responsibility for their deaths.

What usually happens when snails die, assuming they were healthy enough to begin with, is that water quality issues harm them in some way, or lead to blooms of toxic algae (which are near impossible to identify just by looking in the tank), the animals get ill/poisoned, fall off their perch as a result, die as a result, and the fact that they are later found dead on their back is declared as the reason for the death. It would be rather like finding a person laying dead on the floor after taking a cyanide tablet, and declaring the fall as the cause of death

I'd acclimate snails and all other organisms with care, as mentioned, and be careful about putting them in newly established tanks or those with water quality issues, the same as I would be careful about putting corals, fish, etc. in such tanks.

cj

 

[basiab]

I agree with cj that snails really need acclimation. They are not hardy at all. I am not sure why Astrea snails do tip over but I keep an eye out for them and set them back up and usually they live long. It does seem to happen more often when they are new to the tank so maybe it is because they are having a hard time acclimating.

 

[e.muehlbauer]

Most snails need careful acclimation. I am more careful with snail acclimation than I am with fish or corals. The exception, as mentioned, are some of the snails that are used to wide temperature and salinity swings, like the Ilyanassa obsoleta snails I have collected. I toss them in without any acclimation, and they do fine. As for turning over, Astrea's and Turbo's can't do it. When I finally put them in the tank, I hold them against the glass until they attach, or I put them on a rock. Supposedly Trochus snails can right themselves, but I haven't found them very hardy at all. Of the algae eating snails, only astrea's seem hardy enough to survive for years, as opposed to months....or days.

 

[rookie07]

Thanks!

 

[TRIGGERMAN]

Ive heard it can take fish up to 2 weeks to fully acclimate.

Also, i always find tons of snails and what not in tide pools. These tide pools vary greatly in temp and SG throughout the day.....doesnt that debunk the whole acclimation theory? Ive always wondered about this.

As mentioned the change in temp happens over time and it's in the SAME body of water not in an instant like if you have a bag from a store and you just toss something in your tank. Inverts are very sensitive. I also agree like mentioned that for some reason people think that because a snail is only a buck or 2 they can live through anything. It's NOT the case. ANY animal should be acclimated properly using the method I described and they will live. I have never lost any species of anything using this method. Think about it this way, they can make FRESHWATER fish like mollies survive in a sw tank because of a long acclimation process. They are normally in a 6.5 ph in freshwater. Acclimation is the key to survival.