Why aren't snail long lived?

[mmotown]

My tank has been running for about 8-9mos now. In the beginning I ordered my cleanup crew from keyscritters.com. Over the course of 8-9 mod modt of my snail and some hermits have died. My water parameters are fine. I don't over feed and I don't have any type of algae problem. Could it be they starved?

[Blown 346]

It could be that they starved, In the beginning I have lost a few snails and crabs as well. But themain part of my problem was I got some hitchhiker crabs with my LR.

[Bebo77]

its hard to keep critters with smaller tanks ie 180 and less as there is a real competition for food and space.

[Sk8r]

Mine are doing all right in a 55, but the confounded rabbitfish ate some of them.

[Zan]

could anything be eating your crew?

[t-dizzle]

mmotown, I don't know about your hermits, but were your snails astraeas? Many astraeas are harvested from the waters off Baja California, which are cooler than the typical reef aquarium. Many of them tend to die slow deaths because they are simply not accustomed to such warm water. Try a different type of snail next time, like trochus.

T./

[Paintbug]

i have some astraeas that have been in my tank since i started. thats over a year ago. same with my ceriths, and nassis. i would agree with the starvation. if you add a large clean up crew in the begining, there isnt alot of food to start with. then there isnt alot of algae and what not growing later on for them to eat.

[icu2]

I have astreas that are 3-5 years old. Tank temp is usually sub 80 though.

[mmotown]

Yeah they were Astreas. I did order a large cleanup crew what left is maintaining my tank. I need a few more because I see just a tiny amount of algae started to grow on some pieces of rock in my tank

[meco65]

Get a mexican turbo thay love algae mind dose a great job keeping the tank clean + the other snails.

[Amphiprion]

I have some Caribbean Astraea sp. that have been in my tank for nearly ten years. If they get everything they need, they are anything but short lived.

[TOYMAN357]

Last week end I bought 20 blue hermits and 20 margarita snails? I put them in tank at same time as soon as they hit the floor peppermint shrimp and other hermits ganged up on the snails? The next day after work I checked the tank. all the new snails I bought were now occupied by hermits? I also had a nitrate spike What would of caused this unhealthy snails or what

[bertoni]

Hungy hermits. They are predatory. The shrimp might just be hungry, too. A lot of snails deaths are due to starvation and predation.

[JohnnyMantis]

Some of my snails have died off but I'll tell you what, I have more now than when I started! There are all types of what I would call "baby snails" in my tank. At night I have hundreds that come out and they all do a fantastic job at keeping my tank clean. I wish I would never have purchased crabs at all, most of them have died, but no big loss to me.

BTW mmotown, I am the guy you met in Houston at Aquarium World a few months back.