Tropical Fish Forums

[truestar]

I've been having a problem lately(last month or so) with my snails crawling out of the tank and ending up on the floor. I've been keeping up with WC's and everything, the tank levels seem fine. Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate <=10 by the end of the week. However, I'm not using an RO/DI unit, just straight tap water. I'm wondering if perhaps my water has too many heavy metals in it, and whether or not that could be causing the snails to try to escape? I'm going to order an RO/DI filter tomorrow regardless, because I want to attempt corals in a while, but was just curious as to how people who run open top deal with this issue if it's common? I've recently upgraded my lighting to HO T5's and was planning on taking off the glass covers on the tank to allow better light penetration for Coralline algae growth and, later on corals, but was afraid even more would jump if I did. Thanks, any info is appreciated.

[FloridaBoy]

You can remove metals with a Poly Filter pad, but I suspect what you are seeing is the natural behavior of some of these animals, many of them come from intertidal zones where they crawl out of the water on a regular basis. For example, some of the Nerite snails are very good grazers, but some also seem to have a need to escape the water from time to time. We also have to consider that they may be escaping to avoid slowly cooking to death in a warmer aquarium.

I'm not an expert on gastropods, but I can tell you this; like the vast majority of invertebrates, snails are very misunderstood in marine aquaria. The trick is to find tropical varieties, acclimate them properly and don't overstock.

Some of the commonly sold varieties of Astraea, Norrisia and Tegula (trade names vary but can include "turbo, astrea, margarita snails," etc.) are actually colder water animals gathered from rocky shorelines along the Western North American coastline, and have no business in tropical warm water systems. Typically, they survive for less than one percent of their normal life span, even in a reef system! Many of these Trochoideans are doomed from the time they are brought home by the hobbyist, who wonders why they slowly die off one by one
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Keepin' marines happy for 25 years

[truestar]

Thank you very much for all of that detailed info. I went ahead and bought the RO/DI filter, even though it probably isn't causing them to behave in this manner. Thanks again.

[FloridaBoy]

You are most welcome, best wishes for your success.
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Keepin' marines happy for 25 years