losing snails

[qwit10]

I have been losing snails in my reef for some inexplicable reason. My water quality has been fine. Today my ammonia and nitrite reading were higher than normal. Ammonia has risen to 0.05 mg/l and nitrite has risen to 0.02 mg/l. I think that is due to some decaying snails that the hermits don't get to. I have also just recently tried some lettuce nudibranchs for the third time. I am not seeing any of them now but there is a slim possibility that they are alive and hiding in the rocks. Anyhow, why would all of my corals, fish and other inverts be doing fine while I am gradually losing my astrea snails. I only use DI water, so there shouldn't be any trace metals in the system. Any input would be appreciated.

 

[samsdada]

I can think of a few reasons you may be losing snails.

First, there is the issue of starvation. If you do not have enough of the type of algae your particular species of snail likes to eat, they will die. Not every snail eats every kind of algae.

Second, if what you have growing in your tank is a dinoflagellate, they may be dying from the toxins that some dinoflagellates produce.

Third, I have heard that improper shipping of snails can start them on a slow decline as they get stressed and are never able to recover. This has to do with improper shipping but also poor aclimatization to the lfs tanks and also due to improper nutrients available to them in the lfs tank. You may be buying snails that are unhealthy to start with. Unfortunately I don't have any advice for chosing healthy snails unless you can see them grazing in the store and know that you have the same type of algae in your tank.

 

[qwit10]

Thanks for the reply. I thought it may be from residual transport stress as well. As far as starvation goes, I would think that they have an abundance of algae to eat. My tank has been set up for about fourteen months now. I am currently on the winning side with a hair algae bloom that started about three months agoo when I had a sponge die off. I have been running carbon and phosphate sponges to eliminate it. Maybe this has wiped out some of the beneficial algae as well.
As far as dinoflagellates go, would I need to view them with a microscope, or are some of them visible to the naked eye?

 

[samsdada]

dinos can be hard to distinguish from certain forms of brown slime algae as well as diatoms. Even with a microscope it can be hard to tell what you are looking at. Generally two small flagella can be seen on them as a means of identification.

Treatment of different forms of algae is an entirely different topic however.