Dead Clean up crew....starvation?

[Woodstock]

Trochus snails eat lots of green algae. Did you have any green algae in your tank?
The snails could have been 'hungry' for many weeks prior to you purchasing them so starvation could be a cause of their death.

Also salinity swings are deadly. Are you topping off with fresh water at least once a day?

[JT101]

Originally Posted by framerguy

JT101- you are correct in that knowing where your animals came from made a difference in how you acclimated them. If you know your animals came from a tide pool then you can acclimate quickly. Most of us don't know where our animals were collected so longer acclimation is a safety net.
DJBacon- with your wife witnessing the hermit on the snail then I think you found your culprit. Even though scarlet legs are "less likely' to kill snails it doesn't mean they won't. I have evicted all of my hermits in favor of snails. My refugium is full of criminals. The nassarius also may have come from a tidepool area and had adapted to changing parameters.

ReefGuy69- I think you should add Starfish to you list of animals you would accilmate for hours. Of all the animals we keep, they are probably the most sensitive to changes.

Good point. Even though this is NY, the water in these tidepools can be HOT!! So, these mud snails seem to thrive in a typical "warm" reef tank. I agree, if you are getting them from the LFS you do need to acclim much longer.

[djbacon]

thanks ya'll - latest CUC is thriving - I do think acclimation could have been a culprit - there seems to have been plenty of algae - I did float them for about an hour - the last batch I got I acclimated and dripped over 3 hours and they are all still with me a month later. All other original CUC and nassarius snails are fine but have caught my scarletts picking at them too -

sneaky bugggers

[slakker]

I'm starting to be subscribe to the mantra ALL CRABS ARE EVIL! I'm sticking to snails from now!

[prow]

Originally Posted by slakker

I'm starting to be subscribe to the mantra ALL CRABS ARE EVIL! I'm sticking to snails from now!

[rlcline76]

Every trochus I have ever had has had issues uprighting itself. Leaving it quite vulnerable. The rest of the possibilities have been given.

[Craig Manoukian]

Inverts are also very susceptible to nitrites in the cycle. Given no other inverts perished I would guess predation or starvation.

If your hermit is true red leg, then they will attack snails. I've never seen tryue scarlet hermits with the golden/yellow eyes stalks attack a snail in three years of having themm in my tank. All crabs are opportunistic scavangers and would dine on carrion. Because your nassaurius are subterranean feeders for the most part, the opportunity for crab predation is diminished.

Sorry you lost your snails.

[AddictedReefer]

Originally Posted by djbacon

anyone know how to extract the remaining snail carcass from the shell?

I would be interested in knowing how to do this as well. I just found one of my turbo's dead, upsidedown in the back of my tank behind all of my rock.

Also how long can a turbo snail live on it back? ( i know mine could not have been on it's back more than 2 days)

[lcstorc]

The best suggestion I have heard about getting the remaining meat out of the shell was to place it outside and let the ants take care of it. They will clean out any/all of the meat leaving the shell nice and clean.
Now that I have removed the hermits from my tanks the most frequent cause of death by far is snails getting turned upside down and I don't see it until it is too late. Why oh Why can't they turn themselves over?

[funkpolice]

Maybe boil the shell. I just let my hermits and shrimp clean out the shell.
bill