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I just have no luck whatsoever with snails. I've tried to keep mystery snails before, and they die in a day or two. I think this may be partly due to acclimating them too quickly to much softer water than they're used to, but I'm not at all sure.

Then I brought home some nerite snails from an LFS, and they didn't die right away, which was encouraging, but they didn't last more than two weeks. Fortunately, they'd eaten all of the algae I'd bought them to remove, but I'm still upset that I can't keep snails.

Are there copper testing kits? That's the only thing I can think of that would keep killing them so quicky, but on the other hand, it makes no sense at all. I've been keeping shrimp very successfully for over a year, and wouldn't they be just as susceptable to copper in the water as snails? What else could it be?

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

Shrimp are usually more sensitive to copper and other water conditions than snails. You said you have soft water which shrimp will survive in while snails do not like it at all. Especially brackish water nerites. Usually it doesn't cause a quick death though. They start to get holes in their shells and eventually pass away from shell damage. I suppose if you have really really soft water like 6.0ph or lower it could cause a much quicker death.

I dont know whats wrong but next time try apple snails.

Chris

Mystery snails are applesnails and can actually be quite sensitive to some water conditions. I would say they are the least hardy of the commonly kept freshwater snails with nerites being a close 2nd. Although nearly all the nerite species commonly kept in freshwater tanks are technically brackish snails. Then fancy ramshorns which can survive most water parameters with only mild shell deformities and last all those species we consider pest snails that are darn near impossible to kill no matter what your water is like.

What are the other tank inhabitants??