How Many Nassarius Snails?

[petoonia]

I have a 75g tank with about 1-2 inches of sand. How many nassarius snails should I get to keep it clean? I have the option of small nassarius, or the larger tongan nassarius. I would like to do a combination of them both. How many of each is ideal?

I will also be adding some other snails as well cerith, banded trochus, astrea, and some dwarf hermit crabs.

 

[rkizer06140]

i personally would do 5 ea.depending on what i already had in the tank. 5 would be a great starting point

 

[dippin61]

2 or 3 of each.

they do a fairly good job

 

[Craig Lambert]

I have 5 of each in my 75, and am adding 12 more of the large ones. Need my sand stirred a bit more.

 

[petoonia]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9024066#post9024066 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Craig Lambert
I have 5 of each in my 75, and am adding 12 more of the large ones. Need my sand stirred a bit more.

How deep is your sandbed?

 

[Craig Lambert]

It's 4-5"

 

[tgrove]

i have 6 in my 55g with a 3-4 inch bed

 

[petoonia]

Thanks everyone!!!!

 

[returnofsid]

I personally wouldn't buy nassarius if you're looking for something to eat algae. They don't!! They're carnivores. They will sift sand quite well though. If you do buy them, make sure to get the tropical species instead of the ones from cooler waters. There's a lot of people on Ebay selling the cooler water species as algae control snails. I made the mistake of purchasing about 150 of them for a great price. I split them between 3 tanks. Unfortunately, they did NOTHING for the algae, over the period of a week (after having them for about 6 months) all of them in 1 of my tanks died. The rest do seem to be healthy and doing well though. Not sure what killed them all off in the 1 tank. All other species of snails in there are fine.

 

[petoonia]

Im getting them to sift the sand. I will be getting cerith, astrea, and banded trochus for the algae. Thanks!!!