Acclimatizing snails

[TAZ]

Hi all,

I was wondering if you could let me know how long you take when you are acclimatizing your snails. I recently went through a bit of a disaster with my tank after I added some "cured" rock from :evil: Big AL's :evil: (turned out it was not as cured as they claimed, caused my tank to go into a cycle and killed all my corals and snails - but amazingly none of my fish...go figure. I am not to happy with these guys...but that's another story). Anyway, the tank is all back to normal and everyone is happy, so I started to add snails but the batch I added had all died within a couple days. My water specs are totally fine and everything else in the tank is doing great, but not the snails. I did some research on the net today and discovered that snails need a long acclimatization process (5 - 10 hrs apparently). Have other people had this problem? What process do you follow when you are adding sails

Thanks
Martin

[wayner]

Martin:

I would acclimate them for at least 2 hours, I think the main key to keeping snails alive is to have your sainity at 1.025 or higher, since I've gone to a full blown reef, I maintain my salinity levels at 1.026, I haven't lost a snail since.

Just my observation.

[Jack]

Maybe tank parameters weren't "back to normal" quite yet, I'm not sure. I find when transporting LR there is always a little die off (But I live on the Island so the distance is greater) I would be very nervous putting a large ammount of transported LR in my tank. How much did you add to the tank? That sucks that you lost most of everything. Like you were saying, it makes me wonder if the rock was cured as they said.

When I acclimated my snail's I did a slow drip that took several hours. It worked fine and the only snails I lost were to my stupid blue-leg hermits which started eating them like candy if they fell on the sandbed and got stuck on their backs.

As wayner said, I also have read that invertebrates like a higher SG while fish prefer a lower SG. 1.026 is about what I run my tank at, snails are fine!

[Aquattro]

I also have read that invertebrates like a higher SG while fish prefer a lower SG.

Hate to pick, but since fish and snails come from the same ocean, how do they have different preferences?35 ppt. salinity is what seawater should be, which equates to ~1.026 SG at tank temperatures.

[AJ_77]

Have you heard of taking the snails from bag and placing them against the glass at -or just above- the waterline? I've seen this attributed to Dr Ron Shimek (not verified), and the snails supposedly take up to an hour or two to "acclimate themselves" - like some of us do at the beach. :wink:

I tried it with a couple, and they were fine.

<< PLEASE SEE reefburnaby's comment below (Feb 14) - his experience speaks loudly. >>

[Jack]

Haha, I knew i was going to be picked apart for saying that. No prob though :P I have just read that fish do better in lower salinitys because it's less stressful on them, something to do with less osmosis through their body/skin? Correct me if I'm wrong. And ya.. about inverts I just read that too. So basically my post is, factually, solid as a rock :P :roll: Later...

Oh and Alan, that sounds like a neat way off aclimatizing snails. I will try that soon. I just won't let the little snails know that they are "experiments" :lol:

[TAZ]

Thanks for the responses, you have all helped me out. I definitely want to try your suggestion Alan, but I'll only do one or two snails and see how they do the rest I'll do the drip method.

Jack in response to how much rock I added. It was only around 8 - 10 lbs, I just wanted to get some more height in the tank. Previously I had gotten cured rock from Big Al's and had no issues, this time I was not so lucky. I did go back and complain to Big Al's about their rock of death :? and they said they would figure out something to help replace my lost corals (whatever that means), I just don't know if I even want to go back to them. I would rather give all my business to J&L's, these guys are great.

[BCOrchidGuy]

Taz what that means in my experience with them is that they will forget they knew you, and they will sell you corals at a little more expensive than J & L or King Ed pets. Count your losses and don't support them any more. I can't tell you all the horror stories I've heard first hand and experienced first hand from them. I've found both the stores I mentioned above to be exceptional in their dealings with me, so much so I don't feel the need to drive to big als and pay 3 times what I can get an item for at either of the other places.

[EmilyB]

So we can say Big Al's sucks.... :lol: 8)

But......never mention the other one.... :roll:

Oh, will "the other one" be the next nickname..... :twisted:

:arrow: :o

[Canadian Man]

So we can say Big Al's sucks.... :lol: 8)

But......never mention the other one.... :roll:

Oh, will "the other one" be the next nickname..... :twisted:

:arrow: :o

Your EVIL but speak a very good word of truth I think Deb! :twisted: :wink: 8)

[reefburnaby]

Hi,

I tried the waterline way and it had a 20% success rate...so I won't be trying that any time soon. Sure, they were fine for a day or so. They weave between the waterline and then they die. I lost a batch of snails that way.

I like to acclimatize by putting the bag of snails in the refugium and do 20% water changes on an hourly basis. After about 4 hours, I slowly release them in to my tank. If the salinity between the snail water and the tank water is very large, then I would give them more time to acclimatize. Do you know what salinity your snails are from ?

- Victor.