I just got a grip of 10 cerith snails for my 100 gallon tank! They have plenty of algae (hair, slime, red cyano) to munch on. However, i do have a question regarding some odd behavior i saw.

The Run Down:


Orded 10 from Marine Depot Live
Arrived alive on 10/17 (yesterday)
Drip acclimated for 2.5 hours (with a heater in the acclimation bucket so they wouldn't get cold)
Added them to the tank when the pH and temp were the same


Odd behavior: They are trying to escape. All but two or three of the snails climbed all the way up the glass and hung out just above the waterline (as far up as they could go).

Is this normal behavior for them?

Tank conditions:


pH = 8.1
Temp = 80.5
KH = 11.5
salinity = 35 ppt
Ca = 460
Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate = undetectable
Did a 5% water change the night before i added them, which is why the KH and Ca are on the high side.

Mine frequently climb TO the waterline, but I don't recall seeing them out of the water.

have you got a piccy of them? I've seen some "temparate" snails sold as tropicals. You never know. The truth is, some, but not all "temperate" snails (those from areas further north) MUST come out of the water from time to time and will come out ALL THE TIME to breed. The Margarita Snail "Margarites pupillus" is one such species that is best kept out of your tropical temperature tank. They are from the Baja Cali area and need colder water AND a chance to dry off.

Dave

Yea i will get a pic of them soon. That is typical. The temperate zone is the bane of my snail's existence. I just had several turbo's die since they were likely from North Carolina (not exactly warm reef waters).

It might help with ID if you go over to ProjectDIBS and compare your's to the ones that are available there.

According to Marine Depot Live, where i ordered them from, they are Cerithium litteratum collected from Baja California

My water runs warm. Typically near 80 degrees. I have noticed they come down at night and are in the tank in the morning. I wonder if it just gets too warm for them during the day.

I will grab a pic here soon.

I think that Baja snails are temperate.

In my old tank, I always had problems with Cerith snails. They were always the first ones to croak on me. :( And now I know why... my tank used to be run at 81 to 82 degrees from my lights. Well, that's one possible reason anyway.

I just looked at Cabo San Lucas Weather - Conditions, Forecasts and Resources (http://www.loscabosguide.com/weather.htm) for Cabo San Lucas at the southern tip of Baja. They say the average water temperature is 72. The Baja penisula is 1000 miles long. Ensenada is at the northern end and this site Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico, Baja Expo is Mexico’s Most Complete Directory to Baja Travel Information and Baja Web Sites (http://www.bajaexpo.com/cities/ensen.htm) says "The ocean water temperature never really gets warm in the Ensenada area, the high 60's is about as warm as it gets, and that is usually only for a month or two at the end of summer. Wetsuits are necessary all year." This is no to say that there are not tropical snails just that we have to make good purchasing decisions.

Making more tropical snail available to hobbyists it one of the goals of Project DIBS (http://www.ProjectDIBS.com). I encourage you all to visit their website and get involved in the breeding program. Snails pretty much breed on their own so even a novice can participate in this very worthwhile endeavor!

Hmmm... I 've never know a cerith to climb out of the water... intertidal nerites and margaritas, yes..... but not ceriths. Look forward to those pics.

Oooh, I had nerites once. A friend of mine caught some in Hawaii (I'm sure it was illegal and I admonished him for that) and gave me a dozen of them. I couldn't very well tell him to fly back to Hawaii and let these guys go so I plunked them into my tank. They were very cool but they had the nasty habit of crawling out of my tank. I found one a week or two after I first introduced them and it was totally stuck to the side of the tank, dry as can be. I know they're intertidal so I put it back in the tank and sure enough, it bubbled after a few minutes and out came the snail! :)

But alas, they all eventually crawled out of my tank to their demise. :(

In my old tank, I always had problems with Cerith snails. They were always the first ones to croak on me. :( And now I know why... my tank used to be run at 81 to 82 degrees from my lights. Well, that's one possible reason anyway.

Hmm. My tanks temp tends to run around 80. I think i will back the heaters down a bit so it is more like 78, that might help. Throughout the summer, the temp was in the 81 to 82 range but now with the weather cooling i think i can control it better (actually, we just had our first blizzard in Denver and it is not even Halloween yet!)

(actually, we just had our first blizzard in Denver and it is not even Halloween yet!)

Blizzard? I thought it was like 5 inches? In any case, my fingers are crossed for NO MORE SNOW there until we take the World Series :)

Dave