Snail Death

mislisa · Apr 23, 2011

i'm wondering why my snails are all dying. i had several malaysian snails and some ponds snails in my tank, but a few days ago, they all started dying :sad:

. my fish all seem very healthy, with the water stats normal. i thought it might be the pH, but it registers as just below 7.0. i have 8 kuhli loaches, 5 peppered corydoras, 1 pearl gourami, 2 long fin rams, 12 cardinals and 14 harlequins.

i perform weekly 25-30% water changes, and am trying my best to not over-feed. there is a ton of algae though, as i am still waiting to be able to get the farlowella that i want. anyone have any thoughts?

i also posted this in the invertebrates section, but i thought i might get more hits here.

thanks in advance!

BigbruiserAl · Apr 23, 2011

I keep my baby snails at 6.4ph in their grow out tank so it should effect them

Caprichoso · Apr 23, 2011

Did your Loaches eat them? I thought they eat snails...not sure if the Kuhli Loach does though. Did you put any medicine in the water?

OldMan47 · Apr 23, 2011

Look for a source of copper in your tank. Very low levels of copper will kill invertebrates quite readily while leaving most fish almost unaffected.

mislisa · Apr 23, 2011

i didn't know about the copper... i recently bought some plant fertilizer (nutrafin plant grow) on sale, but i didn't check the copper content. i guess i won't be using that anymore!!!! hopefully it'll be absorbed/cleared out before i get more snails in a few weeks. is there anything else i should be concerned about?

Fishrule · Apr 24, 2011

no khuli loaches only each very small snail I believe

As for the copper comment that's not to good for the khuli loaches either

OldMan47 · Apr 24, 2011

Copper is not good for any fish. The inverts just happen to be far more sensitive than most other water life.

mislisa · Apr 25, 2011

well, i won't use that fertilizer again! i haven't dosed in about a week, and i've noticed some tiny baby pond snails, so hopefully everything is getting better! i'll be getting more malaysians soon, so i hope to have this not happen again. anyone reccomend a good fertilizer that doesn't have copper?

StandbySetting · Apr 25, 2011

The copper in the fertiliser is in such small concentrations that it wont affect the invertebrates when dosed at the recommended levels, your Rams may be a possible source of trouble, often mine would eat snails.

Caprichoso · Apr 25, 2011

mislisa said:
well, i won't use that fertilizer again! i haven't dosed in about a week, and i've noticed some tiny baby pond snails, so hopefully everything is getting better! i'll be getting more malaysians soon, so i hope to have this not happen again. anyone reccomend a good fertilizer that doesn't have copper?

I always use Seachem Flourish and have never had an issue with my snails or shrimps. But I always use just under the recommended dose.

mislisa · Apr 26, 2011

my rams are a recent addition, and i think that the snails were starting to die be fore i got them... i'm not 100% on that though. wouldn't my malaysian snails be too big for the rams to bother?? some of them were quite large before their death.

i'm still going to try & find some new fertilizer, as i don't trust this stuff anymore. i'll make sure not to overdose this time though. i hadn't thought it would matter too much if i had overdosed a little. oops! :unsure: