Dead Snails = Problem?

[cdlourie]

Today I found my two mystery snails dead on the bottom of the tank. I have NO idea what happened, but none of the other fish exhibit no problems. No clamped fins or anything. Should I be worried?

[Lupin]

Remove the dead snails and do a water change. Check your water parameters.

What are the water parameters?
What test kit did you use?
Temperature?
Filtration?
Have you observed any unusual signs in your snails' behavior?
How long had you kept them?
Where did you buy them?
Did the dead snails smell badly when you found them?

[Oldfishlady]

Dang.....with any death make a 50% water change....have you added anything to the tank like algicide or any copper products.....or anything at all different...also, what about your source water....what is the source.....tap, well, bottled...etc...

[baylee767]

Could just be copper in the water. It's more dangerous to inverts, but enough of it can harm fish too... that's why I use and reccomend aquasafe, it takes out heavy metals.

[Cravenne]

I definitely agree about the big water change.

Are they new snails? What size is the tank and what is the stocking? Did you acclimate them properly? Feed them enough?

With any livestock, sometimes the quality is just bad. If you didn't add anything and none of the other occupants are sick or acting strangely then a big water change and some close observation over the next few days is all you can do.

I lost 2 snails within a few weeks. I had purchased 5 from a private breeder and they all did well for a few months...then slowly I noticed that a few were growing nicely and the others were not. They died within a few weeks of eachother.

Sorry to hear about the snails though...that really stinks :(

[Lupin]

Just for reference, heavy metals tend to be more toxic at soft acidic conditions. I'm interested to know the pH and hardness levels as well. This is very important with snails. Snails suffer shell pitting in conditions not in their favor.

[cdlourie]

Actually, the tank was 20 Gallons of DI water, and was cycled before any fish were put in.

[Aluyasha]

Did the snails kill eachother? I heard Apple snails (that is what mystery snails usually are) sometimes kill one another.

Or maybe they had a disease that does not effect fish, just inverts or snails.

[Lupin]

The Pomacea diffusa is less capable of cannibalism than canaliculata complex.

[cdlourie]

Do you guys think that is what it was? I changed the water. Tonight I am redoing my whole tank, so it would be a full 100% change, I am going to keep the bio-filter though, in some old tank water, so I don't have to restart the cycle.