Shipping without water??

So I found somewhere online to buy real cheap snails. Only thing is they say that they ship them without water. I didn't know they could survive without water...can they? And how on earth do you acclimate them if they do not come in water? They also say that when you get them they wont be moving, but once you start acclimating them they start to move. I've never ordered snails online, is that how they do it??

 

I've never ordered them personally but my lfs gets them shipped dry. As for acclimating them, I have no idea.

 

Without water can't be entirely true. Without water means dry, and that's not possible, I don't think.

Maybe without "a lot" of water is more accurate. When I received my 100+ snails from reef cleaners, they came in zip-top bags that had moist paper towels in them. There was probably less then 12 oz. of water all told--but call me a stickler for precision. In my book that's not "without water."

 

I've had snails shipped to me in wet paper/towels/newspapers as well. I assume this is what they're referring to. To acclimate them just slowly add water I guess. I forget what bluezoo instructed me to do for them.

 

Thats how reefcleaners ships them.. a wet papertowel..

 

I think ReefSparky is right, almost all marine snails have to be shipped in a way that they won't dry out. I brought back about sixty Red-Mouth Conchs from the Pacific wrapped in wet towels, and none of them died. The only snails that I can think of that might actually survive true dry shipping are some of the nerites and some of the littorinids. Turbos might survive longer than others, but they probably wouldn't make it more than a day or two without moisture. Wet paper towels in a zipper bag would probably work for most snails, though.

To acclimate the ones that are shipped that way, you probably want to hold them against the glass at the water line, half in, half out, and let them attach and crawl into the water as they adapt to it. I know this method works with Turbos and trochids, and would probably work with most other species (not conchs, though).

Cheers,




Don

 

I've had them shipped without water a few times. didn't even have a moist papper towel in with them. the inside of the bag was a little moist, I assume from taking the snails out of the water and throwing in the bag. As far as acclimating them, I just floated the bag to get to same temp and threw them in. Not sure if that was the correct way to do it, but it seems they all lived, hard to count 100+ snails.

 

Yea most do the moist papertowel thing they go dormant and can last alot longer than you would think

 

DONT add water to the bag when you acclimate them.
Float them for 15 mins or so and then just dump them in (Per Reef Cleaners.com instructions) It says that if you add water to the bag the ammonia will be active and can kill them. If you dump them in they will be stressed but it wont likely kill them.

 

Thanks for all your help everyone!!