How many snails for a 100g?

[MegIsAwesome06]

Hey! I have a 100g tank. I have no idea how many hermits, but a lot. A lot of tiny dwarf blue leg, a huge striped one, at least one scarlet one and possibly a Halloween. As for snails, I have 7 that I know of. No idea what kind. My guess would be Nassarius.

I found a great deal on Astraes and was wondering how many I should get. I don't want them to starve, but I have ample GHA and cyano to sustain them for a while! So...please let me know. Thanks! [emoji38]

 

[MegIsAwesome06]

Anyone?

 

[Nrupaw]

check on reefcleaners.org they have "cleaner packages" to guess-timate number of snails needed.

I personally would start with a smaller number and go from there. when it comes to CUC each snail has specific job:

Nassarius - They won't touch algae, instead they will eat left over food. they are great in preventing leftover food from decaying

My advice would be to do start a mix of Nerite, Florida Cerith, Dwarf Cerith, and Trochus Snails. Take things from there and fine tune. this mix helped me when i started. also don't worry, they won't starve. they are very resilient at finding food

Also, you say you have ample GHA, and cyano. ideally, you want to eradicate that by filtration etc and not rely on CUC for that. you'll never win.

 

[Genera]

In my 90, I have 14 nerites which are not very small, and over 100 combined of Nassarius, Dwarf Cerith, and Zebra Periwinkles, which are all extremely small (under .5in). John from reefcleaners gave me a few extra snails (around 50 extra snails :rollface

 

[Shawn O]

First, look at the shells your hermits are living in and avoid buying snails that look like that, if at all possible.

As for Dwarf Cerith snails, my mexicans did diddly-squat and my caribbeans eat like hoovers. See the difference here:

Nassarius snails eat a lot of something and move about a lot. Win-win.

Mexican turbos are supposed to be lawnmowers. Mine is a green turbo, a lazy SOB, for sure.

It couldn't hurt to add about a dozen each of the several types suggested here, except for the turbos, 2 or 3 will probably be more than you want. Just beware that your hermits will likely steal their shells. I haven't noticed any of my hermits messing with any snails that are way smaller than they are. They don't usually bother with a shell if it's obvious to them that it would be too small. They will if there isn't a decent surplus of empty shells to choose from.

 

[MegIsAwesome06]

Wow! Thanks! I never would have thought to make sure the shells were different than the hermits. I'm looking to add the Astraes. I'm going to have a local friend look at my tank and hopefully help me out with that. Thanks!!!!

 

[joshbrookkate]

If you don't have any nassarius (you think so but but sure) get some! They are cool to watch and really work the sand. My favorites.

 

[cloak]

For a tank that size 8-10 Banded Trochus snails would be your best bet IMO. Maybe 3-5 Scarlet Hermit crabs as well. Don't forget, you can keep the glass & the sand clean all by yourself. There's really no need to rely on a small army of invertebrates to keep your tank clean when you can do the work yourself. Less is more when it comes down to a CUC. Think about it... GL.