nursing snails back to health

[SharkLover]

SO i've used the search tool a million various ways and can't find a single thread about nursing what seem to be sick snails and by sick I mean "sluggish activity, fatigue. hanging onto the glass by half the snail body. stuff that shows they're not doing so hot. I keep losing snails that look like this and I HATE it. Hate is a strong word, anyone should hate seeing an animal die. So in my opinion using the HATE word here is OK. I know in the past my temperature were a bit high and snails tend to like low temperatures. I'm looking for home remedies when snails get sick. What conditions do they best thrive under and when sick what can be done to save them.

 

[Doherty]

IME.... Once a snail starts to look bad there is no turning back. The question is why are you losing so many snails? They are real paticular on water quality as well as temp etc. What are your water params?
How did the snails look when you purchased them?
If they are new snails...... How did you acclimate them, any fast change in water conditions they don't do so well, even if they are going in perfect water conditions. They need a real slow acclimation..... I drip acclimate all my snails.

 

[stingythingy45]

What kind of snails?
Do you have much algae on the glass?
Also,just curious but what do you use for salt mix?

 

[NateHanson]

Where did you get these snails, and what kind are they. I've seen tons of "nassarius" for sale on ebay, but they are actually a temperate variety - not the ones we get in LFS and from reputable dealers.

Do you top off by hand or automatically? If by hand, how many gallons do you typically add at one time. I've seen snails do poorly with swings in salinity, so that could be a something to consider.

Have you tested Ammonia, Nitrate, and Nitrite?

 

[SharkLover]

ammonia, nitrate nitrites all 0. established reef tank about 12-14 months old. I'm talking the big turbo snails. I dont have any algae on my glass, usually only phytoplankton tends to grow on the glass due to supplimental feeding. I change about a half gallon to a gallon per day. my salinty usually stays around 1.026 or lower. My temperature is 74-77 on a chiller. I top off by hand with ro/di water. for salt i use tropic marine. I always drip acclimate for a minimum of 45 minutes after leaving the bags in the water to adjust the water temperature of the tank to that of the purchased inhabitants.

 

[Miller]

Maybe you have to many snails and they are straving to death? I'm not sure if there is much that could be done to nurse the sluggish ones back to health.

I've never had trouble with Turbo Snails, except with I forget to feed the fish for a week and my Mystery Wrasse decides it's time to find herown lunch.

 

[SharkLover]

I definitely have an over abundance of snails in my tank of a smaller size. could that be it? i've just had zero success with keeping larger turbos. they all seem to pass.

 

[dcforester1]

Do you have any starfish? I noticed my snails were not looking so good, Then I found my CC starfish ontop of them. He ate some, the others I dont know what he was doing, but they looked lousy afterward. He can now be seen at Jays. I also dont have much algae on my glass. I dont know maybe mine were not getting enough to eat.
Derek