[Cougra]

Newsalt

Yes the SG you keep your tank at could be a big part of the problem along with the speed of acclimatization. Snails, actually inverts in general, have very limited abilities to regulate the amounts of salts in thier bodies (osmoregulation) They depend on thier environment to have a salinity level very near that in which the need to survive, otherwise they expend a lot of energy attempting to maintain the salt levels within their body and can't keep up with the process.

When they are put into water that has lower concentrations of salts then what's in thier bodies, the salt content in the inverts body will be diulted and extra water entering the body can cause a lot of damage to the invert.

When it is slowly acclimatized, the invert has more of a change to be able to alter thier body chemistry to expel the extra salts in thier body to match that of thier new environment. The more difference there is in salinity the longer acclimatization should take.

Animals that are lost within the first month or so most likely die from some kind of shock that can be caused by different SG levels, pH shock, drastic difference in nitrAte levels, ammonia poisoning, or nitrIte poisoning caused from the facilities that they were held in, or how they were transported.