The Puffer Forum

OKay i dont know if im settig up my snail breeder tank right i have a 2.5g tank with a ac30 filter no heater and i use prime to treat the water befor adding it to the tank. i put about 15 ramshorns in the tank and in like 4 hours they were all either i think dead or not comin out of their shells at all. any ideas why they would be doing this? thank you

Could be shock if not acclimated properly?

Is the tank cycled ??, tanks that small do tend to be rather unstable , it maybe that all 15 snails going in at once caused an ammonia spike ....

There might be too much water current. AC30s are meant for 30gal tanks if I remember correctly.

Consider a larger tank.

Consider heating the tank unless the area is warm enough to keep the tank in the mid 70sF.

Ammonia/nitrite is not the issue for Ramshorns and common pond snails that they are for fish. The snails (in sufficient numbers) can be used to cycle a tank.

Ramshorns IME need more room to be productive.

What is the carbonate/bicarbonate hardness of your water?

the tank is fully cycled and the water is the same as LFS just local tap water i know it is quite hard but i do not know the exact number. and the AC30 is for a 30 gallon tank but i have it on its lowest flow and also slowed with filter sponge. only thing i can think of is maybe the temp of the water i will add a heater and see how it goes. but everything i have read says that a heater is not needed but the internet is full of lies.

A heater may not be need IF the ambient temp is always above 70F. The waste heat fro that filter may be heating the tank - perhaps you might just check that out?

I would keep the water above 70, they tend to just sit there and not do anything in cold water

Myaj wrote:I would keep the water above 70, they tend to just sit there and not do anything in cold water

Thats what happened to my snails. Temp was around 50-60F and all snails just sit in their snail.

thanks everyone for your input they are doin good now heater made a huge difference