Astreas are just plain dumb and clumsy. If they end up on their backs, they can't "right" themselves. More often than not, they fall victim to hermit crabs. There is a larger, "banded trochus" snail that looks and behaves like the astreas but can actually turn themselves over (like nassarius do). They also tend to last longer in aquariums. They are easily identified by the darker, sometimes black foot, as opposed to the white/pink of the atrea.
As Greg said, heat can cause premature death. It really jukes up their metabolism and they just perish. Cold temps can also cause them problems. But, for the most part, premature death of snails in aquaria is a result of either a) starvation, or b) osmotic shock.
Yeah.. unless you have a top off system that keep the salinity queued in, the swings (albeit smallish swings) really affect them. The differences between the internal and external pressures of their cell structure, due to swings in the salinity, actually cause the lil' cells to go KABOOM.
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