Clean up crews

[dgilbert2]

I have never had much success with clean up crews, Turbo snails just don't seem to survive more than a few weeks. I therefore stopped buying anymore some years back until I read a number of posts on how to acclimatize them properly. So I thought I would give then another try but the three shops I tried all had more dead empty shells than live ones. All seemed quite familiar too me! Am I missing something, how long should they survive in a tank with plenty of established live rock?

 

[Paul B]

Try some of these

 

[dgilbert2]

If I could get one

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

I have some snails that are over 4 years old... I usually lose some yearly & add some more...

 

[DaveK]

Snails and most other clean up crew members should live several years. If your having a problem look into two possible areas. First, do you have anything in the tank that would be killing them? Some fish will rat snails, so will some large inverts such as mantis shrimp or large hermit crabs.

The other area to check is general water quality issues. One possible area could be copper or other toxin getting in the tank. Any brass or copper fittings being used in the plumbing? Have you ever treated the tank with copper in any form? Is your water source good? if your don't already have one an RO/DI unit can keep a lot of bad stuff out of the water. Water bought from LFSs can often be of lessor quality. Test it before use.

 

[Pat24601]

I have some snails that are over 4 years old... I usually lose some yearly & add some more...

Mine seem to last about 6 months to a year. It's pretty random depending on when my crabs get hungry for escargot.

 

[frisbee]

What's the average temperature of your reef tank? It seems kind of odd that they're only lasting a few weeks, but the way I understand it is that some of the "Turbo" snails that show up at our LFS might have been taken from much cooler waters. (Gulf of Mexico as opposed to Fiji) I'm not sure if this is what's causing your snails to die, but it's definitely something worth looking into.

How long has your tank been set up btw? What else do you have in it?

 

[chadzx10]

I seem to have the same problem with snails. I buy them and most won't live past a day or so. I do have some that have been in the tank for over a year but new ones seem to never make it. I drip acclimate for 2 hours and this doesn't seem matter. All parameters are in check. Not sure what's causing my dilemma.

Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Hi Chad

to ReefSanctuary, a real Sanctuary of reef forums, with lots of very nice members

Start a tank thread & share your tank with us so we can follow along, we love pics

 

[dgilbert2]

Thanks for all the comments. Does seem to have shown up mixed results. I will have to have another go as its been over 6 years since I had any. My corals though have been fine for a number of years so my water conditions should be OK?