Snail Acclimatization

[gilaesther]

Is it the same process as with fish?

Thanks!

 

[mike455555]

yes

 

[gilaesther]

Thank you, Mike!

 

[Livewire88]

I don't know why but I have never acclimatized a snail before putting into any of my tanks.

 

[gilaesther]

Lol. I think most of us think of snails as too hardy to be shocked by water temperatures or something.

Which reminds me, if you have naturally hard water, do you need to add anything else for the snails' shells?

 

[Essjay]

The only thing you might need to add for snails is calcium, and since hard water = loads of calcium you should be fine without.

I acclimate snails the same way as I acclimate fish, though I use a floating plastic tub for snails rather than a bag. The advantage is that they climb out by themselves so you know they are alive, this is particulaly useful for snails that come in the post.

 

[gilaesther]

That would have been a great idea! Oh well... I'll have that idea in my head for next time

 

[Essjay]

Just realised that some of what I wrote doesn't make a lot of sense Snails that come in the post aren't in water so you have to put them straight into your tank water, you can't acclimate them properly - but putting them in a tub of tank water rather than in the tank itself allows you make sure they are alive.
But you can acclimate the ones that you buy in a shop and take home in water like you would for fish, only using a tub not a bag!

 

[gilaesther]

Actually, the ones I just got, spike tailed MTS, through eBay, were shipped in a tiny bag with water, lol

 

[Essjay]

That's good. I've bought apple snails and nerite snails that arrived in a bag or box with damp filter wool or even damp paper kitchen towels, no 'loose' water. With packaging like this you can't do a proper acclimation, unfortunately. The most you can hope for is that they survive.

 

[Donya]

That's good. I've bought apple snails and nerite snails that arrived in a bag or box with damp filter wool or even damp paper kitchen towels, no 'loose' water. With packaging like this you can't do a proper acclimation, unfortunately. The most you can hope for is that they survive.

The safest thing to do in such situations is allow slow introduction to the water. You can poor a very shallow (like 1-2mm deep for a 1" apple snail) layer of water in some container and set the snails on their sides. The snails will then acclimate themselves on their own time. If they don't like the contact with the water they'll touch it a bit and and then shut again for a while. Meanwhile, any water in the mantle cavity probably will be equilibrating slowly with what the shell is in contact with provided there is a damp connection between the two spaces. Unless the param differences are extreme though, they will likely be fine, which is why you can usually get away with just dunking them straight in. However, that's not to say that they can't be harmed by a rapid transition in params. For example, you can kill freshwater snails with too quick a snap in pH, although it has to be very fast and large, such as adding a liquid pH/KH buffer right next to a live snail.

 

[Essjay]

It hadn't occurred to me there would much water left in the shell after a day or two in the post with just a bit of damp filter wool in the box Thinking about it, it's only logical or the snail would have died.

I have acclimated shop bought snails like fish though!