Transitioning fresh->brackish->salt and vice versa?

[eklikewhoa]

Well I have been kinda bored lately so I decided that I would take my over populated Nerite snails from my fresh water tanks and convert them back to salt!

I need some nerites for my little reef tank cause some hermits decided they were gonna put the squeeze on them for their shells so now most of my crew is gone. Those that have kept up with it, HarrisHawk has tons of Nerites snails that he has offered various members here/NASH/etc which were once brackish/salt. Anyone done this before? Got any pointers for me?
Right now my game plan is for about 5% water change(or add the additional 5% without taking out the fresh) with full salt water every third day or so for about 2wks...then I will have the whole thing exchanged for fresh batch of saltwater to see how they take to it before throwing them into my reef tank.

I have set up a little container to slowly convert them into full salt again and who knows, I might throw a mollie or two in there as well

[spyke1969]

Re: Transitioning fresh->brackish->salt and vice versa

I am curious about this too, I have amanno's that breed all the time & would like them not to be wasted.

[mrairportjunke]

Re: Transitioning fresh->brackish->salt and vice versa

well i got some bumble bee gobys that were in fresh but they are a brackish fish.  so i put them in there own tank, and every 2 or 3 days depending on my schedule, i changed the salinity by .02.   till i got them to my brachish enviroment.  if that helps i hope but i dont konw about the snails.

[Spot86t]

Re: Transitioning fresh->brackish->salt and vice versa

When I was converting my 2 puffers and 2 scats, I had them in a 20 long (that's when the scats were only the size of a quarter...) and only had it half full.  I mixed the marine salt like it says for full marine and every day or every other day I added about 3 cups (of the premixed saltwater) to the 20L.  I kept a sponge filter running in there the whole time - actually 2 of them.  and eventually the tank was full.  

I didn't realize it at the time, but somehow a female guppy got in there and got converted to brackish.  To restore her to fresh, when I moved, I relocated the scats/puffers into a 50 gallon seaclear tank with the sump setup in the back.   I mixed a fresh batch of water with the same salinity and moved all but the guppy in.  I moved one of the filters with them too.  I used a 5-gal bucket and put some of the old brackish water - maybe a half gallon - in it along with some from the new mix, to about halfway.  I moved the second sponge filter in also, and I added 1 gallon of freshwater over the course of a day.  I had her outside on the deck - it was summertime.  I would scoop out about 2 cups of water a day, and put 2 cups freshwater in.  This went on for a couple of weeks, then we had a big rain and that finished her conversion and I moved her to one of the inside tanks.

[mrairportjunke]

Re: Transitioning fresh->brackish->salt and vice versa

personally the guppy woulda been fish food.  lol

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Transitioning fresh->brackish->salt and vice versa

Well I might just up the process some....not really wanting them to die after I put them in the reef tank though cause it's gonna be a b!0#ch to get it out which is my main concern.

[Mzungu]

Re: Transitioning fresh->brackish->salt and vice versa

I think your plan sounds great.

[Spot86t]

Re: Transitioning fresh->brackish->salt and vice versa

Oddly I think the guppy would have been fine.  Lonely, but otherwise OK.  

The puffers wouldn't eat what the scats or guppy ate, and they never bothered the guppy.  They're dwarf green spotted puffers, one is about 2.5" the other about 3 to 3.5".  Neither has grown much at all in the last 6 months.  I've never seen them nip at anything although they've nipped ME more than once!  On the other hand, the Silver Scats are real pigs, but never displayed agression toward the guppy.  They will eat anything I put in there except snails.  I've seen the puffers with mouth open about to grab a bite of food, and one of the scats will darn near snatch it right out of their mouth.  So, just for payback, I occasionally will throw a bunch of snails in there for the puffers so they know what it feels like to have food snatched.  Then later I'll feed them.  I've seen them wait for a puffer to break open a big snail, then try to snatch the meat from the puffer.  Usually the puffers grab the whole snail, then spit out the shell.  The scats are now about 4 or 5" in diameter.  They were about 2.5" when I pulled the guppy, and never bothered with her.  She kept to herself though and was only about a month old when I first noticed her in there.  I think she must have been hiding in a clump of java moss that I put in with the converting puffers so they'd pick the snails out.  Can't do that anymore - the Scats will devour the plants.


Ek:

I have a small brackish tank that I moved my nerites into.  I forgot about that one when I wrote that first response.  I turned it brackish in express mode - took less than a week.  Little 5 gallon tank - half filled, and added 1 cup of marine water before work, and another when I got home 10-12 hours later, sometimes a little more, sometimes I forgot.  No losses.  No reproduction either, although I've seen eggs.  They (eggs) just vanish after a while.  I haven't devoted much time to figure out what I'm missing though.  Have you found any sites with good info on breeding the nerites?  Or are just wanting to move them for the heck of it?

[sproett]

Re: Transitioning fresh->brackish->salt and vice versa

I did this with some mollies (fresh to salt) a few years back.  I just had a bucket of marine water and I put the mollies in a separate bucket.  Every  10 or so minutes I would put a cup of the marine water into the bucket with the fish.  It took a few hours but I was doing other things in between.  Two days later one of the mollies had babies and then I had about 20 little ones already converted.

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Transitioning fresh->brackish->salt and vice versa

So far I have been taking it slowly....unlike fish the snails will retreat and show no signs of poor acclimation so I don't want them to go into hiding and die possibly spoiling my tank.

Right now I have the salinity up to 1.015 so by the end of the weekend they should be ready to go into the tank which is set at 1.025

[Spot86t]

Re: Transitioning fresh->brackish->salt and vice versa

I like your thinking.  I always take care stress things as little as possible.  Even snails  :)  Of course my efforts were futile this morning as my bigger weather loach launched out of the 'transport container', onto the carpet and managed to wriggle all the way under the tank stand.  I'm glad they're tough in that respect, I had to rinse carpet fuzz and dust off him before I could put him in with the rest of his buddies.  

Why is it they never understand, even when you repeatedly tell them "It's OK, I'm trying to help you, now swim into the cup and be still!"

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Transitioning fresh->brackish->salt and vice versa

Ever look out while in a tank?

I would be scared $h!tless too.

[Brownsnoutuk]

Re: Transitioning fresh->brackish->salt and vice versa

Ek, walk outside and look up.

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Transitioning fresh->brackish->salt and vice versa

No....I can't swim.

[spyke1969]

Re: Transitioning fresh->brackish->salt and vice versa

why, where are u ?