how to feed the baby snails?

[lastduke]

My Astrea snails spawned four weeks ago. my fish were busy with chasing the eggs and ate them, but today, I found the tiny snails everywhere in the sump. Most likely the eggs which fell in the overflow and survived in thesump .
so what should I do now? what should I use to feed the snail babies?

I am afraid the bristle worm will eat them all.

 

[reefnetworth]

Astrea are herbivors, they will find alga in tiny crevics, etc. you dont need to feed them, they will be fine as long as they are not sucked into the return and back to the display and eaten.

 

[lastduke]

i have only 20G sump, i am not sure I have enough algae to feed them in the sump. do I need to buy some algae to feed them?

have no idea how to prevent them from the 4 pumps in the sump.....

 

[NCNBilly]

In my experience, you'll have a few survive regardless of what you do. I have numerous generations of conchs that pretty much bear young every two or three weeks.

There are probably tons in the rock - you'll see them emerge at some point. If you have hermits, you may want to isolate them somewhere since they are probably the biggest predator.

 

[Koshmar]

Sorry to hijack but I'm also interested in this topic, so I have a few questions.
1. Will pods or other small hitch hikers eat the eggs?
2. Would using a naup net strainer over the inlet/outlet flow tubes prevent the eggs from being sucked up?
3. Do Ca levels have to be higher than normal to facilitate shell development in baby snails?
4. What factors can induce snail breeding?
5. I've heard baby snails can feed on diatoms, would adding diatoms have any negative effect on the rest of the tank and is there truth to the diatom suggestion?

Thanks.

 

[lastduke]

#1,i think the fish is the biggest predator on the eggs.
#2, therea re baffles and live rocks in the sump which can prevent the egg sucked up.
#3, having the same question
#4, I guess the big water change 30%-50% sometimes induces that.
#5, haveing the same question, but I am thinking to increase the sump lighting to boost up the diatoms, will that work?