Acclimating New Snails....

[N1z]

Hey im just orderd from UDA:
12 ceriths
12 nassarius
12 turbos astreas
2 super turbos

Now i dont wanna loose them durin acclimation or within the week as its costin me about £65... Whats the best method for snails?
I think the drip method is the best but how can i do that when i dont have a sump and obviously i need it to be gravity fed

Any tips and ideas would be much appreciated

Adam

 

[Ter]

use one of them air stone hoses with a valve

something like that
Ter

 

[bobf]

use one of them air stone hoses with a valve

something like that
Ter

... or if you don't have a valve just tie a knot in the tubing - pull it tighter/looser to adjust the flow rate. Bout one or two drops per second works for me.

 

[atmmachine816]

How does this work though, I don't get how the water would go in the tube and into the bag? I'm interested to know also.

Thanks

 

[bobf]

How does this work though, I don't get how the water would go in the tube and into the bag? I'm interested to know also.

Thanks

By the magical power of syphon!

1 Put the open bag containing the snails into a bucket (can tip them in if you want, or leave them in the open bag - just depends upon the volume of water in the bag and the size of the bucket))
2 Place bucket on floor/chair/wife's lap (whatever, so long as it's below the tank's water level)
3 Tie a loose knot into air line tubing
4 Suck on tubing to start syphon (or submerge the tube fully in the tank to fill it with water if you're a wimp!)
5 Stick end of tubing into bucket/bag - I use a clothes peg to fasten it to the bucket
6 Adjust flow rate by tightening/loosening the knot as required
7 Continue till water volume has doubled - job done.
8 Go get a cloth and clean up the water you spilled.

Others may have their own approach but thats worked fine for me.

 

[atmmachine816]

O ok, you have to start a siphon, that's what I was missing Duh . Thanks a lot

 

[bobf]

O ok, you have to start a siphon, that's what I was missing Duh . Thanks a lot

Welcome - good luck with it!

 

[Danno]

How does this work though, I don't get how the water would go in the tube and into the bag? I'm interested to know also.

Thanks

By the magical power of syphon!

1 Put the open bag containing the snails into a bucket (can tip them in if you want, or leave them in the open bag - just depends upon the volume of water in the bag and the size of the bucket))
2 Place bucket on floor/chair/wife's lap (whatever, so long as it's below the tank's water level)
3 Tie a loose knot into air line tubing
4 Suck on tubing to start syphon (or submerge the tube fully in the tank to fill it with water if you're a wimp!)
5 Stick end of tubing into bucket/bag - I use a clothes peg to fasten it to the bucket
6 Adjust flow rate by tightening/loosening the knot as required
7 Continue till water volume has doubled - job done.
8 Go get a cloth and clean up the water you spilled.

Others may have their own approach but thats worked fine for me.

bobf, would you mind if I copied those instructions into my spiral notebook that I keep to write down useful tips/tricks? Thought I should ask before I just did it.

 

[Lynden]

Snails are generally hardy, however; if for what ever reason you can't do a drip acclimation, simply floating the bag in the water and mixing it cup by cup with your tank water will do just fine. Make sure not to get shipping water in your tank.

 

[N1z]

Great thank you. Its becuase last time i pout some ceriths in and they all dissapeared in a day and never found since. So do you have to float the bag of water before you drip water in? or just do without?

Cheers

 

[bobf]

Great thank you. Its becuase last time i pout some ceriths in and they all dissapeared in a day and never found since. So do you have to float the bag of water before you drip water in? or just do without?

Cheers

Yes - float the bag for 15-20 mins to make sure the temp is the same between bag and tank.

Danno - copy all you like!

 

[N1z]

Hate to sound dumb cos i aint, but i want to clarify it.

Float the bag for 20 mins
put them in a bucket and do a drip acclimation method say 2 drops a second?
Once full empty half and repeat
then put them in..

That sounds right?

 

[rhysiboy]

yerp pretty much. Heard an interesting way of acclimating snails is you float them and thn put them on the highest part of your glass (so part is submerged) and the snail will edge closer into the water as it is ready. dunno if it works but seems to be what my snails have done when ive added them in (climbed to top and out of water then edeged back in)

 

[bobf]

Hate to sound dumb cos i aint, but i want to clarify it.

Float the bag for 20 mins
put them in a bucket and do a drip acclimation method say 2 drops a second?
Once full empty half and repeat
then put them in..

That sounds right?

Yep - that would be good.

All I do is let it run till the original water volume from the bag has more or less doubled - don't need to get too stressed over it though, as Lynden says snails are pretty tough anyway.

I managed to prove this with the first three turbos I bought - make the mistake of putting the bag with the snails in, in a bucket in the boot of the car containing some live rock which was just covered in wet newspaper. On the journey home the bag containing the snails burst and emptied itself, so I had no alternative but to just chuck them in the tank and see what happens. Still have these snails now, 6 months on, no problems - they did sulk for the first couple of days mind.

 

[N1z]

Yer i did same kinda thing when a turbo hitch hiked, but i didnt know until i put the rock straight in. still have him today and he loves to make a load vibration noise by hittin the pumps the sod!

Well i just got them at 9.15 this morning amazing UDA! all the water was still warm and lot better packaged i found then Atlantis aquatics.
Prob is i have no air pipe and there are 6 bags in total lol. So im gunna do egg cup size every 5-10 mins, the bags are small so wont eat all my water in my tank thank god.