Aquatic Snails And Spirulina

[jaypeecee]

Hi Folks,

Just recently, two of my Zebra Nerite Snails died suddenly. The water parameters have been stable for a long time and no medications whatsoever have been added for well over a year. This is a 125 litre (approx. 30 gallons) freshwater tank. I had had the snails for less than a year. I'm clutching at straws here but I was wondering if these snails may have ingested some Ocean Nutrition Spirulina Flakes. I regularly feed this to my fish and it is consumed rapidly at the water surface. But a tiny proportion inevitably falls onto plants and the substrate. I note that Spirulina has a high copper content. According to www.nutritionvalue.org/Seaweed%2C_dried%2C_spirulina_nutritional_value.html, dried spirulina contains 6.1mg/100g of copper. I don't have any figures for the toxicity of copper to snails when ingested. But it would appear that anything in excess of 0.15ppm can be toxic to snails in the water. Is it possible that the snails had been killed by copper in the Spirulina Flake?

Thanks in advance.

JPC

 

[devonjohnsgard]

Hows your cleaning of the tank? Could it be over cleaned? Snails like some mulm to eat in the tank.

I'm not sure about the Spirulina. Seems unlikely. It was a main staple that Carl feed for many years and he had snails. Though he used a different brand I think.

[Carl]

The fish food is not likely the cause unless there was some other contamination

Ocean Nutrition Spirulina Flakes actually has a much lower content than the better Spirulina 20 product (previously Green Flake Plus) which as Devon noted was the star of some fish nutrition studies I performed over 15 years. Snails and other invertebrates grazed on this stuff and grew many generations too

Reference/Resources:
www.americanaquariumproducts.com/SpirulinaAlgae.html
www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Spirulina20Food.html

Carl

[jaypeecee]

Mar 26, 2019 10:26:57 GMT -5 devonjohnsgard said:

Hows your cleaning of the tank? Could it be over cleaned? Snails like some mulm to eat in the tank.

I'm not sure about the Spirulina. Seems unlikely. It was a main staple that Carl feed for many years and he had snails. Though he used a different brand I think.

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

No, the tank is not over-cleaned. I make a point of only cleaning the rear glass panel every couple of months to allow a biofilm to develop with associated algae. The front and side glass panels are cleaned every 2 - 3 weeks. Ornaments, bogwood/driftwood are rarely cleaned by me as the Clown Pleco takes care of them. But I do try to keep detritus on the substrate to an absolute minimum.

JPC

[jaypeecee]

Mar 27, 2019 9:44:42 GMT -5 Carl said:

The fish food is not likely the cause unless there was some other contamination

Ocean Nutrition Spirulina Flakes actually has a much lower content than the better Spirulina 20 product (previously Green Flake Plus) which as Devon noted was the star of some fish nutrition studies I performed over 15 years. Snails and other invertebrates grazed on this stuff and grew many generations too

Reference/Resources:
www.americanaquariumproducts.com/SpirulinaAlgae.html
www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Spirulina20Food.html

Carl

Hi Carl,

Thanks for your reply.

I don't believe that I can purchase Spirulina 20 here in the UK. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

JPC

[devonjohnsgard]

I know Spirulina 20 can be shipped there.

[Carl]

Mar 28, 2019 12:01:12 GMT -5 devonjohnsgard said:

I know Spirulina 20 can be shipped there.

Yes, the UK is only second to Canada in international locations AAP ships too.

Carl

[Carl]

Mar 27, 2019 14:12:08 GMT -5 jaypeecee said:

No, the tank is not over-cleaned. I make a point of only cleaning the rear glass panel every couple of months to allow a biofilm to develop with associated algae. The front and side glass panels are cleaned every 2 - 3 weeks. Ornaments, bogwood/driftwood are rarely cleaned by me as the Clown Pleco takes care of them. But I do try to keep detritus on the substrate to an absolute minimum.

JPC

What is your GH & KH?

Lack of mineralization is an issue for fish, but often even more so for snails

Reference:
www.americanaquariumproducts.com/AquariumKH.html

Carl