Massive snail death

I have always had 20-30 turbo snails, and 20 small reef hermits, and 2 big mean hermits.....I grabbed 20 more larger snails about 3 weeks ago, and today (been gathering for a week) I have about 10 of the 20 new snails dead, and shells emptied by the big hermits. I know the hermits will attack them, but why so many? I even have dead snails up high on the LR where only little hermits can get to them. Are they dying, or getting slaughtered? Thanks, Nick

150 gallon 100lbs LR
lots of snails and hermits
2 niger triggers
1 clown trigger
1 yellow tang
1 blenny
1 dogface puffer

 

From what I have always understood-dead and dying snails means bad water. Poison or using chlorinated tap water, etc. I think snails are the first to go. i'm no expert though, but you might need to run some carbon and check your water parameters.

 

Is it only the turbos that are dying? If so, do you happen to know where your turbos are from? I ask because if I'm not mistaken, the more common Mexican turbo snails come from cooler waters so they tend to die when we add them to our tanks.

 

Check your salinity with a good refractometer first - if that's not a problem start doing water changes- good luck !

 

Acclimation can also cause survival rates to drop. Death is not always right away. I've been acclimating inverts for 1 1/2 hours lately because of the snail deaths I have had

J