Nerite snails have died

[Essjay]

from a local reputable aquarium store which I would imagine are also grown in the UK.

Not necessarily. Unless they were labelled as grown by one of the EU growers, they could have been imported from anywhere in the world.


If your tap nitrate is that high, I agree with SlapHppy. Have you looked for your water quality report on your water company's website? That should include nitrate and it would be interesting to see what they say it is.

 

[StevenF]

T

Enough copper to harm inverts?

I make my own micro and macro fertilizer for my RO water tank which currently has Blue dream shrimp and nerve snails. I normally maintain a copper level of 10 Parts per billion (PPB). About 10X the amount found in most fertilizers. And I did at one time experiment with double that dose. The shrimp and snails didn't notice. Most commercial fertilizers supply 1 PPB.

So the fertilizer is not the problem. But I did have my tap water tested in the past and it has 50PPB. Most of this copper comes from copper water pipes. Most homes probably get about 10 PPB . The EPA limit for copper in tap water is about 113000 PPB or 1.3 part per million.

Most utility water quality reports list mineral levels in the water before it going into thee pipes. However for copper they test samples from some homes and report the average. But copper levels can be very different from from one home to the next. So copper levels in tap water might be the problem but there is no data available on how much snails can tolerate. Based on my observations I believe that they can handle a lot more than Most people would expect.

 

[fishy_sean94]

So I did end up calling my water company and explaining my taps nitrates seem to be high according to my test kit.
I ended up getting a call back from their water quality department who went through a lot of technical stuff and told me how it’s monitored etc with no spikes in nitrates in the supply.
However I was told that if I was still concerned someone would come out and test our water themselves so someones coming on Monday to have a look, so it will be interesting to see what the outcome is.

Im not sure whether I’m hoping my test kit is correct and they have to do something to sort it or that it’s wrong because then I’m not sure why the kit would be so inaccurate suddenly and obviously why my two snails have died as I can’t see any issues that would effect them.

 

[Naughts]

Can you post a photo of the test alongside the colour card?
You mention orangey-red which would be about 40; for 160ppm I would expect dark red or brown on an API test kit.

 

[ClownLurch]

Are you sure they’re dead? Mine have a habit of laying on their back (shell) for hours on end. Next morning they’re mooching about as normal.

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

Are you sure they’re dead? Mine have a habit of laying on their back (shell) for hours on end. Next morning they’re mooching about as normal.

Really? I was told that nerites cannot right themselves!
All that time, worrying about them, hunting them down through the tank, 'just in case', putting them back onto their feet and now you tell me that they could've done it themselves?

...I have a sudden craving for Beurre d'ail!

 

[Essjay]

They can do it themselves, but not always. It's easier for them if they can grab hold of something - decor, plant, tank wall - but they can sometimes do it even without. They have to push their bodies almost completely outside the shell, and if fish in the tank keep picking on them, they pull back in the shell, then have to start pushing out again. So if fish pick at them every time they try, they need help. I have a metal stick at the side of the tank to flip my nerites right way up (or push them up against something) so I only get my fingers wet rather than my whole arm.