Best Invert for Reef Tank

[jamirlima]

Which is the best inverts for a reef tank? I had people tell me trochus were best so bought like 20 of them and they all died except of 2 of them. I am not sure why?

 

[graveyardworm]

Need to figuer out why the Trochus died first. How long has your tank been set up?

 

[jamirlima]

Set up for the one last year. Not sure why trochus died. Do the snails necessarily be fed with extra food. Maybe they died of starvation?

Second reason could be due to fluctuation in temperature. 75-82. My tank was fluctuating in that range for about a month. (blame on Kansas weather lol changes from 40-80 F the next day)

 

[graveyardworm]

Quite possibly it was starvation. Although I think unlikely unless you have a very small tank. Also the temp swing isnt all that bad for snails. Over what period of time did they die?

 

[jamirlima]

The trochus survived for over 4 months and slowly started dying. I have couple left now. I have 125 G tank. I did not see any green algae on the glass when they were alive now that only couple left I started to see some green algae on the corner glass.

 

[snorvich]

You may have inadvertently introduced an animal that killed them. I would check that first.

 

[Octoberfest]

When you say they died did you see them laying on the substrate with their soft body still intact or did you just notice the shells were empty?

I had a tank setup for about 8 months and no problems, then all of a sudden my trochus snails started going missing one by one. I figured they weren't dying from natural causes and that something was eating them because every time I would find a shell it was empty.

Long story short I found a polyclad flatworm in my tank. It took about a week to catch him but once I did my snails didn't die off anymore.

Also take a look at the bottom of your snails for something called pyramid snails. They'll be white and almost look like tiny baby snails hitching a ride. These are preditors and eat their host.

 

[lancer99]

What are commonly sold as Trochus are often a temperate species collected from colder California waters...even the Florida merchants do this. So they don't last very long in reef temps.

-R