Hermits keep dieing, snails ok

[Feclar]

Hi,

I have lost about 10 hermits now blue/red/white ones dont matter, I love watching them but hate having to pull their bodies out and loosing them.

I have some nerite snails that stayed burrowed till feeding time and some other misc (zebra?) snails that stay stuck to the tank wall up top on water line

Fish seem ok as does the pencil urchin

12g tank, I change 2g of water a week and watch the salinity

The only thing I feed the tank is flake food for the damsel+clown fish, the snails and hermits used to wake up and run for the food that touched the ground

[BeesGoneWild]

How are you acclimating them? Are you sure there just not molting?

[Feclar]

They usually die 2-6 weeks later

To acclimate I just float the bag for an hour or so then drop them in without the water

[Feclar]

Started 12g tank in January
Try to do 2g water changes every 1-2 weeks

I did a water change Sunday, now 2 days later here are my numbers


Salinity 1.021
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
ph 8.2

Temps 78-82 per digi termo

[Michael]

funny that i find hermits are very hardy and snails die quite easily, i wonder if acclimination is the reason?

[drparker]

Do you have empty shells laying around or just find Bodies? A Molt will look very very real not like a hollowed out shell. I also find that it's snails I lose and hermits are pretty hardy.

Try drip acclimating if you are in fact losing them.

[camlov2]

do you also notice empty shells? If you don't then they probably aren't dieing, only molting.

[Michael]

i find bodies, i have lost 5 snails in 4 months yet all parameters are fine and i acclimitise for about an hour before putting them in the main show tank, i usually let a air pipe drip water into the bag i bring them home in for 45-60 mins, this usually trebles the water in the bag i then release them, i know it sounds terrible but because they are so cheap and all other critters in my tank are fine it has never bothered me, but thinking about it now i have aproblem with snails, yeah i have a problem

[drparker]

When I drip and the water level in the bag doubles I dump half out and do this twice, on third doubling is when I add them. Make sure you also temp acclimate them.

[Feclar]

Well I have pulled out 2-3 shell-less floating bodies/carcasses
Have actually seen hermits pull these bodies/carcasses out of other shells to get a new shell.

I usually do not take the shells out, I used to toss the shells every once in a while if I had not seen them move for a long while

I am now taking the shells out and rinsing them with water and tossing them back in (trying to get any dead material out)

I have pulled out hermits that I thought were dead but would move slowly so I would put them back in, they would eventually die thou

After loosing a batch of hermits, when I do my water change/cleanings I have noticed black flakes/chunks which I think are decomposed flesh which is why i stir the sand/rocks to try to get all that in the water I pull out

[drparker]

stirring the sand could be releasing bad things that are causing your problems.

What do you test for and what are measurements? What is the source of the water you use for changes and top-off?

[Feclar]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12334953#post12334953 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by drparker
stirring the sand could be releasing bad things that are causing your problems.

What do you test for and what are measurements? What is the source of the water you use for changes and top-off?


Salinity 1.021
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
ph 8.2

Temps 78-82 per digi termo

The source of the water is a RO system mounted to the sink at work, it pipes to a special water cooler and I get the water from that so that the water never touches water after going thru the RO system.