Dry shipping snails?

[rocketeer]

I just got 100 ciriths from a mail order company. When they arrived, I found they were dry shipped. I've heard of this before and that people have had good results. I did a quick look on the internet and couldn't find much info on acclimation. How can you acclimate when there's no water to gradually change? Adding a small amount of water seems bad because there's slime or something in the bag and the addition of water would make concentrated slime. People seemed to just stick them on the glass. There's no toxic water at least.

So I put them into bowls and lowered them into the water. This way I could see if there are any DOAs left in the bowl. They all crawled out except for two. They seemed to do fine for several days

Now I have dozens of them crawling out of the water and, I think, drying out!

SG 1.0245
Temp 81 - 82 Deg.
ph 8.1 - 8.2
Ca 400
Alk 2.6 Meq/L
Nitrate 0 two weeks ago
Phosphates measure 0
water changes 10%/week with Kent salt.
RO/DI used.

Do people report dry shipping success after one day and fail to report that a week later everything died?

If anyone has had long term success then the method must be ok and the deaths are due to some other mistreatment.

Any ideas?

Jack

[rocketeer]

I don't think it's lack of oxygen because everything else, including other snails, is doing fine. I have lots of surface water motion.

Jack

[lhoy]

I have always just floated and dump snails and small hermits. Never a problem.

Lee

[caferacermike]

I've ordered probably about 2,000 of the black ilnassarius from Ebay. They always ship dry. I float for a few mins and then dump them in a container with a small amount of tank water. As soon as they begin to crawl, in the tank they go.

[rocketeer]

Yeah, but are they still there after a week or two?

Jack

[Darth-Tater]

snails live longe than a week or two :w00t jk

DT

[caferacermike]

I was buying them so my wrasse could eat them, see thread elsewhere. Yes many of them are still alive. Dry shipping them as quoted by a seller reduces the effect of nasty detritus eating snails fouling the water of their shipping bags. I've never seen a DOA either.