Conch goes everywhere except the sand

[emilese]

I picked up a small fighting conch on Friday with the thought that it would do a good job cleaning and sifting the sandbed. But, since it's been in my tank it seems to prefer everything but the sandbed. It's been all over the live rock, the glass, and I even had to remove it from the gyre pump. It has spent very little time on the sandbed.

Has anyone else had this issue?

 

[ohsoreef]

I picked up a small fighting conch on Friday with the thought that it would do a good job cleaning and sifting the sandbed. But, since it's been in my tank it seems to prefer everything but the sandbed. It's been all over the live rock, the glass, and I even had to remove it from the gyre pump. It has spent very little time on the sandbed.



Has anyone else had this issue?

It sounds like he's very hungry. How old is the system and do you have a decent amount of life in the sand bed? . Every few months i will see mine a couple inches up the glass reaching some harder to reach alge film. What sand do you have (if you know)? They are pretty heavy an not really designed to go vertical. Spot feed of you can.

Sent from my VS996 using Tapatalk

 

[emilese]

It sounds like he's very hungry. How old is the system and do you have a decent amount of life in the sand bed? . Every few months i will see mine a couple inches up the glass reaching some harder to reach alge film. What sand do you have (if you know)? They are pretty heavy an not really designed to go vertical. Spot feed of you can.

Sent from my VS996 using Tapatalk

He may be but, the system is pretty established at 15 months old and I believe has a nice amount of life in the sand bed. I may try to spot feed but, I really hope he starts to forage in the sand bed.

 

[jd371]

My two conch snails always stay on the sand and I've never seen them anywhere else or even try to climb on the rocks or glass. For a time I thought they didn't climb until someone posted about theirs doing so.

 

[pagojoe]

Show us a pic. That doesn't really sound like true conch behavior.

 

[ReefWreak]

I've had 3 conchs in my years of reefing, and I've never heard of one climbing before, especially to a powerhead, unless it was up against the rocks. Conchs have no adhesive foot, they only lump around on the floor. I could see them maaaaybe desperately hobbling up a low rock, but even then, they usually would roll right down again.

I'd check your species first.

 

[emilese]

Yeah, I'm concerned that I didn't get what it was sold to me as. I'm not fluent in Chinese but, I thought I had the translation correct that it was a fighting conch (the translation was "sand snail" or something close to that).

I tried to get a couple pics, on of him high up on the rockwork and another of him on the glass at the top of the tank.

The pics aren't great but, let me know what you think he is.

 

[emilese]

Here's one more pic of him on a rock.

 

[pagojoe]

Yep, it's a conch, but not a fighting conch. Most species will spend their time on sand grazing on algae, but a few small species spend most of their time on hard surfaces feeding on diatoms and microalgae. Yours is one of those. I guess he's hunting something to eat.