Acclimating new arrivals via mail order is a slightly different process than acclimating livestock from your LFS (Local Fish Store). Additionally there are some differences with the types of livestock purchased. In this post I’ll be showing how to acclimate a clean-up crew composed solely of snails. The process would be the same if hermits were included as well as most invertebrates.

Most species utilized for aquarium cleaning are intertidal inhabitants. This means they can accommodate changes in salinity and to an extent pH changes much better than most other livestock. So we’ll be more concerned with matching temperature than we will water conditions.

Rather than drip acclimate into a bucket we will float them in the bag they came in; be sure and leave the bag closed! While normally you would open the mouth of the bag for surface area for oxygen exchange, we want to avoid this; while the bag is open the CO2 in the water will be dissipating and the pH will rise.

The water the animals were shipped in has a low pH due to the raised CO2 levels from carbonic acid. This is actually beneficial as it makes the ammonia less toxic. If I were to add water from the display tank, the pH would rise quickly and it would make the ammonia much more toxic. Ammonia toxicity is directly related to pH levels. I’m more likely to lose livestock via ammonia poisoning than I am from the pH and salinity changes. The most important thing is to get the temp matched and get them out of the water they arrived in.

I had my wife bring the package into the house in a warmed area as soon as it arrived. This will bring the temperature up somewhat, and speed the process for me. However I assume most of you will be at the mercy of your employer and the postman and will likely have the package in the weather for a time. No worries though, these are all exothermic animals and as long as the temp doesn’t approach freezing they’ll survive. For those of you in colder climes I’d advise waiting until spring for your order, or ship overnight with someone ready to receive the package for you. Reefcleaners does ship with a heat pack as shown below.

This particular order is well packed and insulated. Due to the care taken with shipping I expect few losses among these animals. This illustrates an important point too, while I may have spent a bit more by going through reefcleaners.org (well actually I didn’t) I’ll keep more of my livestock than otherwise. Avoid the false economy of buying in larger lots from a wholesaler who cuts corners. They won’t have a high survival percentage, and you will find out why your LFS sells Blue/Green Chromis for $5 and buys them for $1. It’s the 50% mortality rate.

Another thing to note is that I won’t be quarantining these animals. The tank volume required to feed this many snails in a quarantine would be the same as the display tank! I’ll also avoid doing a pH matched freshwater dip as well. These animals are a bit stressed from their trip to San Diego from Florida.

After about 20 minutes have passed I’ll net the snails and put them in the display tank. Due to the puffer I’ll try and put them in an area away from his normal hangouts. They should be placed in a visible area though. Any snail that loses it’s operculum (the trapdoor that closes the shell) is dead, and any that don’t move after 24 hours are likely dead as well. It is important to get them out as soon as possible. There is already an increase in bio-load, and the addition of ammonia from decaying snails could induce a mini-cycle and endanger the fish. Be sure and dispose of the water they came in though, as this will minimize the risks of introducing parasites that could harm your fish.

I’ll continue to check on them for another week or so. More may have been over-stressed and weakened enough not to survive more than a few days. The Cerith snails are an exception though; they can go dormant and estivate for several days.

While the acclimation process has been completed there are a few ethical points to make here. The large one is sustainability. While these animals were sourced from a vendor who farms their own livestock, most marine animals are wild caught. They suffer terrible conditions during shipment due to the low profit margin, and have obscene mortality rates. As many as 4 out of 5 anemones don’t survive more than a month as an example.

Another point to be made regards dumping unwanted livestock into your local ocean. The animals used in marine tanks are tropical species. That means dumping a blue leg hermit from the Caribbean into the Pacific is a bad idea. It can introduce diseases that the local animals have no resistance to, and the hermit will die regardless due to being out of it’s preferred habitat. This is actually the best case scenario. For example, Caluerpa is now illegal to have in California as un-thinking hobbyists have allowed it into the wild. It has rapidly become a problem by displacing native species.

So be sure to enjoy your tank, but be responsible as well. I hope that my step-children can enjoy this hobby as much as I do in the future.