Snails

[Aquandy]

I used to have loads of turbo snails in my tank the ones with cone shaped shells. Now just see loads of empty shells on the bottom.
Chatting to Caroline the other night and she mentioned that these don't have a good lifespan and that there is another type of snail which is better as a part of a clean up crew?
Cannot remember the name and James if you read this have you got some coming in on the next order?
Cheers.

[Macca]

I get asked this q all the time. I will put something together for you and hopefully it will help others also.

give me a 30 mins to do a write up.

James

[Macca]

i will do this bit by bit so will keep adding to this thread.

1st of all acclimation.

how long do you acclimate you new snails for??

** If you answered under an hour you will be lucky if your snail(s) will survive the day or at best a few weeks.

If you answered more than 1 hour but under 3 hours you may be lucky and your snail(s) will last their normal captive environment lifespan.

If you answered between 4 and 8 hours you are ensuring your little snails kidneys have not been ruptured and are giving them the best start possible.



** Other factors must be considerd how many drips per second acclimation did you set and also what was the difference in salinity from bagged water and their new home. In some instances you might be lucky, and both salinity of bagged water and new home a virtually identical.

James

[piglet]

They were Astrea Snails Andy

HTH

Piglet

[Macca]

Diet and feeding

We all need food to survive and so do snails. No food then its curtains. There are mant type of snails - carnivorous - ( require meat example nassarius) omnivore - (eat meat as well as vegetable matter for exampe ceriths) and the most common herbrivores in our aquaria ( eat vegetable matter - example the Trochoidean snails)

we seem to have a surplus of food left overs, decay and detritus so its not suprising that we tend to keep nassarius and cerith snails a lot longer in captivity than trochoideans. Trochoideans (turbos, trochus, astreas) require different types of food and this is one of the main reasons they starve in our setups. They are taken from the wild and put in captivity and starve.

IMO

If the snail flys about your aquarium eating all day it is consuming large amounts of energy and if food is scarce then it is pointless overloading the aquarium with this family of snail - for example Trochus - it will require vast amount of food to offset its energy consumption.

On the other hand if food is scarce why go for a great dane - ie turbo snails. The true turbos that we see in this country are usually made up of the following animals - Turbo fluctuosa (mexican), and Turbo setosus(indonesian). Both have large appetites due to their size (golf ball) and require vast amounts of hair algaes and micro algaes respectaviley. Oh - if a retailer is selling an astrea snail or a trochus snail as a turbo snail would you trust their judgement -- 90% of retailers do IMO!

This leaves one family of Trochoideans - astraeas. The astraeas IMO (Astraea americana, Astraea gibberosa and Astraea tecta are useless. Yes their appetite is somewhat less than trochus and turbos but the slightest wave and they off on their back to become hermit food. The generally stick to diatoms on the glass as a source of food,

So what one would I recommend - if you have a continous supply of micro algaes then the turbo family, if you have a constant supply of diatoms then the trochus and if you run a reef system where algaes are limited then the astraea.

Now is there another snail that has not been mentioned that imo is more suited to a true reef environment -- yes!

Give me 30 mins to write up.

[Macca]

Taxonomy is a right nightmare here.

Astraea.sp (species) belong to the genus Astraea and subfamily Astraeinae and family turbiniidae and superfamily Trochacea

The true turbo.sp belongs to the genus turbo but its family is turbinidae not turbiniidae .

The turbinidae family also has another genus and it is this genus that I recomend, it is called the Astralium genus. I believe the species I recommend is Astralium calcar. I have seen it noted as Astralium phoebium but believe my refernce to be correct,


You may ask yourself why all this bla bla - well here are two images, one is an astraea snail the other an astralium snail - can you tell the difference?







dont worry if you dont because most LFS cant either - they just call them turbo snails. :D

Most snails we buy in this country are astraea not astralium :eek:


I have lost myself now :D

I recommend Astralium snails :D dont have large appetites and dont fall of the glass like astraea.sp more suited to our tank tempretures and are far more hardy than their cousins.

[piglet]

Taxonomy is a right nightmare here.

Astraea.sp (species) belong to the genus Astraea and subfamily Astraeinae and family turbiniidae and superfamily Trochacea

The true turbo.sp belongs to the genus turbo but its family is turbinidae not turbiniidae .

The turbinidae family also has another genus and it is this genus that I recomend, it is called the Astralium genus. I believe the species I recommend is Astralium calcar. I have seen it noted as Astralium phoebium but believe my refernce to be correct,


You may ask yourself why all this bla bla - well here are two images, one is an astraea snail the other an astralium snail - can you tell the difference?







dont worry if you dont because most LFS cant either - they just call them turbo snails. :D

Most snails we buy in this country are astraea not astralium :eek:


I have lost myself now :D

I recommend Astralium snails :D dont have large appetites and dont fall of the glass like astraea.sp more suited to our tank tempretures and are far more hardy than their cousins.

That's what I meant to say :D

Piglet

[Aquandy]

Cheers James very interesting, you have any in stock or getting some in?

[Macca]

coming with ya sexys and pistol - 28th. make sure and give ya sexys a coral or nem home so mr pistol does not pull his gun out at them.

[Aquandy]

Cheers James. No nem but have some knobbley mushies and a large finger leather, either of them suitable?

Also just seen the thread for that Bryopsis eating shrimps, well anyway followed one of the links posted and saw one of these http://www.meerwasser-lexikon.de/eng...ucatanicus.htm, and was wondering if you can get one for me?