Mexican turbo snails are dying

[Mikef1]

Recently my turbo snails have began dying one by one. Its funny because my tank is looking the best it has since I started it and all params are perfect. Any ideas on what would cause this? Could they not be eating enough?

 

[herpencounter]

I would say there is not enough food for them (they eat and eat and eat).

 

[Anonymous]

They need to be in a tank with sufficient food. Once they took care of the algae problem/bloom, they are just going to starve to death.

 

[Kevin1000]

Unfortuantely many mexican turbo's are cold water snails and they tend to slowly cook in our tanks.

 

[Anonymous]

Unfortuantely many mexican turbo's are cold water snails and they tend to slowly cook in our tanks.

What Kevin said. These are subtropical snails and prefer water no warmer than about 72 - 74 max.

 

[shavo]

have you noticed if there is a spiderweb like thing around the dead snails shell? I have a predator worm or two in my tank and they eat snails. I caught them in the act and a few times I tomahawked them, but they are fast. I think they have some kinda toxin or poinon they use but there are always what looks like spiderwebs around the shells when they are done.

 

[Anonymous]

Unfortuantely many mexican turbo's are cold water snails and they tend to slowly cook in our tanks.

What Kevin said. These are subtropical snails and prefer water no warmer than about 72 - 74 max.

+1 - heat kills these guys.

 

[Mikef1]

Thanks guys!! I beleive it is the heat that is killing these snails. What other snails would you recommend that can handle the heat?

 

[Kevin1000]

Different snails tend to eat different things .. variety sometimes help.

I keep a few nassarius & zebra snails (meat eaters .. nassarius says on the sand, zebra stays on the rocks) combined with some astrae, cerith, and margaritas (I suspect margaritas are cold water but much tougher than turbos).

Variety helps .. be patient .. go slow .. and add as needed.

 

[Eboman]

Snails also need to be acclimated with much more care than most people use.

Someone did an article on snail physiology a few years ago and they are VERY delicate when it comes to quick variations in water properties. It's probably in the RDO library somewhere.

I remember getting my first "cleanup crew" many years ago and floating the bag for a bit and dumping them in.

Now I drip acclimate them for nearly a day before placing them in the tank.

Thanks,
Eboman