Elephant slugs- Scotus

yakfishin

New member
Anyone else have a breeding population of these in their tank. I find the smaller ones, about the size of a dime, all the time in my sump. At night I can usually see about a half dozen or more larger ones in my main tank. For some reason, I don't usually see the smaller ones in the main tank. I will usually remove some of the smaller ones in my sump and put them in the main tank when they get some size on them. They seem to be perfect inverts for an aquarium, being that they eat algae, are interesting and pretty to look at, and I'm assuming easy to get to breed. I'm wondering why they aren't offered for sale? Perhaps I need to start a business!
 
I saw one in my tank last night that was about 3 inches long, the biggest one that I think I have. I've seen some in pictures that appear to be the size of a persons hand- real monsters. But being how I have seen them in my aquarium for 6 years now, and that 3 inches is the longest one I have, either they are really slow growers or they don't live as long of a life cycle in the aquarium to get huge. There isn't much information on them out there.
 
According to the slug forum, these snails are either male or female but readily breed if you have both genders in your tank. I agree, they are wonderful snails, and wish they were more readily available, as I am not lucky enough to have found them as hitchhikers. Be sure to update your location in your profile -- you may have potential customers in the wings here.
 
I'm going to start my quarantine back up here in about a month in preparation of adding a couple of fish to my tank. I may add a couple of small ones in there, after the fish are gaone, and supply them with algae sheets and some live rock from my sump to see if I can get them to grow while keeping an eye out on them. If it works, and I can get them to mature a bit in there, I'll see if I can't start selling a few. I have offered a couple of larger ones in my main tank a bit of sheet algae and they seem to munch on it pretty well.
 
I caught sight of my lone Scutus the other day while checking on my reef. It would be nice to get these wonderful snails a higher profile just so people would stop killing them when they find them as hitchhikers. Please keep us updated on your progress.
 
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