Snail Death/Dormant?

[Fishman0]

I have never kept any type of snail before, but yesterday (10/6) i purchased 3 "mystery snails" from the LFS. Today (10/7) i came home at 4:45pm to find all the snails bottom up, literally. Oh and they were split into two tanks (one in a 10gal, two in a 75gal)

Are they dead? or do snails lay dormant at times?

Is there a special process in which they must be acclimated?

here is my acclimation procedure which i have done for all the other fish i have ever put into an aquarium;

1) empty 1/2 of the water the fish/snail was purchased in, into a container. in this case it was a 1gal rectangular glass enclosure. (larger containers for larger fish and sometimes an airstone)

2) place fish/snail into the enclosure, with towel ontop

3) use a 0.090" O.D. (yes that small) Tygon S-54-HL Microbore Tube with a loose knot to drip into the container from the tank. The drip rate is around 24oz per hr or 0.1875 gal/hr.

4) wait about 3-4hrs (longer for larger containers)

5) net out fish/snail (i never pour the LFS water into my tanks)

6) turn off aquarium lights

never had any problems in the past.... Why now?

I thought it could have been water params so i checked (all regular levels)

10Gal
pH: 7.5
Nitrite: 0.0
Nitrate: <10 (did a 50% WC 10/4, one every 5 days)
Ammonia:0.0
Medication: None used since Cycle in January​

75Gal
pH: 7.6
Nitrite: 0.0
Nitrate: <10 (did a 70% WC 10/4, and one every 5days)
Ammonia:0.0
Medication: Cycle in June, salt 3tblsp/10gal (stopped 9/26)​

Does this make any sense​

 

[Lupin]

This is just one of the many reasons why it is best to obtain your snails from private breeders than LFS. You did nothing wrong on your part in introducing the snails. Snails have no reason to stay dormant unless you let the tank temperature go very cold in which case, they will hibernate. It's only a day. Most snails recover after a few days. What you can only do is watch them constantly for behavioral changes. Sniff them from time to time to check if they're still alive. Smelly snails are practically dead.

 

[Fishman0]

So do you think they are dead or possibly in shock?

should i put them in another tank and quarentine them or should i just wait and see?

 

[Lupin]

You could always separate them and do daily water changes. Do they smell badly at all? Strong odors usually indicate the snail is dying or dead.

 

[Fishman0]

No smell at all.

interesting note: before i left earlier, i was not sure if they had died or not so i placed all three into a small container with some of the tanks water and a glass plate over top. when i came home a little while ago, two attempted to escape, the third was on the bottom but its body was stuck to the base. ther was some snail "waste" in the container which looks like when you erase pensile writing from paper

none were moving a lot tho. yesterday after i put them in the tank, they were cruising across the sand as i would suspect a snail would.

i will put them all into one quarentine tank now and see how they do.

btw should i add salt at all or they are too sensitive to salinity?

 

[Lupin]

Don't add salt. Clean water is all they need. Actually, they perk up a lot when your water is kept clean. This kind of snail is notoriously fickle with water conditions.

 

[Fishman0]

thanks for all the advice lupin.

ill do a WC on the QT tommorow and see how they progress.

are there any snails that are not as sensitive as these? and where could i get them?

thanks again