Astrea snails spawning!

Willistein

Active member
I know, I know, I'm a total geek - but I think this is the coolest thing I've ever seen in a reef tank. I noticed one of my astreas on the top rock of the stack stretching up as high as it could go and then it suddenly released a little cloud of eggs! i'm sure some of you have probably seen it, but it was a first for me. Grabbed the camera thinking I would never get it, but it has spawned at least 40 or 50 times now. Actually it must have triggered another astrea, because two of them were doing it after a while. I think what possibly triggered the snail to spawn was a heavy coral feeding I did tonight, but who knows.
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I've read that spawnings of one species often trigger other entirely different species to spawn as well. I noticed what looked like a tiny bristle worm doing this crazy spiral swimming motion in the middle of the water column. I sucked him up with a syringe and tube and put him in a glass. I then watched him expel what must have been either eggs or sperm in the bottom of the glass for several minutes before I stuck him back in the tank.

Anyways, I thought this was all pretty amazing and I thought I would share.

BTW, the snail pictures were taken with continuous shooting mode with my digi cam.
 
Thanks! it spawned so many times I could tell by its behavior when it was about to do it. I would hit the shutter button and the camera (Rebel xTi) takes 3 shots per second. Then it's just a matter of deleting the 15 extra shots. :) I wish I had a better lens, but they're $$$
 
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