Dying snails?!?

[Nellyville41]

So my main 3 tank is doing great I think?!? All of my shrimps are fine and one is even berried. My snail population continues to blow up and there’s a decent amount of new baby snails. However I have quite a few snails that have died off and all I see are their empty shells. They all range in age from maybe a few weeks to a few months and even one of the older bigger ones. I don’t have anything near them that can cause any type of issue. There’s an orchid plant near but that’s was put there after. Any input?

[Nellyville41]

They’re the ones I got from here. Also I guess it’s ok. Just look at this.

[mike.d]

Thanks for asking about this!

I've noticed the same thing with my MTS snails. The empty shells I see are larger. My smaller MTS, nerites, and shrimp are fine. I even have tons of shrimp larvae floating, too numerous to count, as well as berried shrimp.

I want to assume it's normal because the nerites and shrimp are faster at gobbling the algae, while the smaller MTS need less to survive.

[JoeG]

Nellyville41 nothing much for me to add concerning your dying snails but here is an article about the MTS (they are listed in the article as freshwater snails but we know better ):
http://aquariumbreeder.com/malaysian-tr ... rimp-tank/

Some of the observations don’t pertain to them in a brackish Opae ula tank, ie. aeration requirements, but it is an informative FYI article about the life cycle and parameters for the snails.

[Dch48]

Agree with Vorteil. Nerites, especially the small Horned ones, are better than MTS and don't take over.

[Varanus]

A proviso, but in a supershrimp tank MTS won't take over either, provided you don't overfeed the tank. Nerites are certainly prettier, but in supershrimp tanks they can sometimes have trouble finding enough food (some people cycle a few between different tanks to allow algae to recover), plus they have that habit of laying hard to remove eggs on the glass.

[sliphorn]

A proviso, but in a supershrimp tank MTS won't take over either, provided you don't overfeed the tank. Nerites are certainly prettier, but in supershrimp tanks they can sometimes have trouble finding enough food (some people cycle a few between different tanks to allow algae to recover), plus they have that habit of laying hard to remove eggs on the glass.

..
This is exactly how I see it too.
..

[Dch48]

I have 16 adult shrimp, 3 month old young ones, and a horned Nerite snail in my one gallon. There is no visible algae except for the 2 small clumps of macro. I get a little worried about the food supply so they get the amount of spirulina powder that will stick to the outside of a toothpick once a week.

[Nellyville41]

So probably like 90% of the snails stopped moving. Some are dead but most from what I can see are still inside their shells. Maybe they’re hibernating or slowly dying. Temps have been fluctuating in SoCal with now being around 50 to 65 in my house.

[JennyPenny]

I have to agree with Varanus. I would stick with the MTS snails. I had 2 nerites in my 2 gallon tank and there was not enough algae. I removed the larger nerite and kept the small horned one, but it still didn't have enough algae. I swapped it back and forth from my freshwater tank, but it died 2 years ago. I haven't had nerites since.
My tank is 4 years old and I have never fed the shrimp. My MTS snails came from a 10 pack from Mustafa, and I have never had a popluation boom. 6-7 months ago I even tossed in about 20 from a friend's freshwater tank since there didn't seem to be many in my tank anymore.

[Dch48]

Nerites do not need to have visible growing algae to survive. Case in point, when I first set up my 3.5 gallon Betta tank, I put a Zebra Nerite in about a week after setting the tank up from scratch. I never saw it actually eat anything. It wouldn't touch any kind of algae wafer or fresh veggies. It just kept busily crawling around and I saw it defecate a few times so it was eating something. There were only artificial plants until I added a Marimo ball. It lived through the cycle (along with the Betta) and lasted about 8 months which is from what I have read, about all you can expect. They seem to be able to live off biofilm alone for extended periods of time. Do they eat algae? You bet they do. They are especially fond of the brown slime type. I would much rather have a single small Horned Nerite in with my Opaes rather than the MTS which multiply.

[Mustafa]

In the 50s the snails won't move much, but they should still be ok and start moving when it warms up. And seeing empty shells here and there is normal. Snails are born and other snails die and leave behind shells.

As for which snail to keep...the livebearing snails that are offered here (Tarebia and Melanoides) are hands down most suited for a Supershrimp tank. They turn over the substrate, can live without feeding for months or years just like the shrimp and never overpopulate in a well-run Supershrimp tank that is not overfed. They are actually a good indicator species for how well a tank is run. If you're getting overrun by them, then you're doing something wrong.

As for nerites...they need food...lots of it. Yes, they may starve for a long time, but that's not ideal. Plus...if a big nerite dies in your tank, especially very small tanks, you have a water pollution problem...especially if you don't immediately notice the death.