If snails keep dying, that should tell you something?
- Thread starter mpderksen
- Start date
FoxFace Fish
New member
Just an opinion but I think every tank has its very own unique CUC my best friend has a large crab that covers itself in green star polyps (decorator)and he loves it and a mag float. I hate the crab but love snails and I still have all my snails I started with it all depends on your system to be honest and I have a mag float as well which is the best CUC I have ever purchased
ZenGuitarGuy
New member
I have some "CUC" animals, but they're more pets than functional. Hermit crabs, an emerald crab, Strawberry Fighting Conch, and a couple of snails (bumblebees, nassarius, ceriths). I had other kinds of snails, but there gradually disappeared (trochus, turbos).
Ones from the tropics will do well in 80..... Mine 78.5....so close enough I'd say.
The ones that die really fast are those Margarite snails, come from colder waters last maybe 30 days.....had no luck with Trocus either.
Best snail for me was Mexican Turbos, 5 of them removed every bit of red hair algae in two weeks.....amazing.....but not much on the green stuff for this , I use 30 standard Astrea, but they are slow.
Also 10 Nar's, they have done a great job in the sand....
homer1475
New member
Only CUC in my tank is a handful of nassarius snails, handful of hermits, a small emerald crab which I never see, and a couple fuzzy chitons.
Snails die for the most part, although the nassarious ones do an awesome job of keeping the sandbed clean. Fuzzy chitons(another type of snail which is super hard to find) will eat anything on the rocks right back down to pristine white rock, yes this includes coralline. These are not acrylic tank friendly! They have the hardest organic compound known to man for teeth and can actually bite into glass, and will leave teeth tracks on acrylic tanks.
Snails die for the most part, although the nassarious ones do an awesome job of keeping the sandbed clean. Fuzzy chitons(another type of snail which is super hard to find) will eat anything on the rocks right back down to pristine white rock, yes this includes coralline. These are not acrylic tank friendly! They have the hardest organic compound known to man for teeth and can actually bite into glass, and will leave teeth tracks on acrylic tanks.
IowaReefer
New member
I respectfully disagree. I have always had both and with the exception of large wrasses and very small snails, it has not been an issue (10+ years). The real problem is as stated previously, the water temp and origin of the snails.
When I had more time and ran SPS-dominated tanks, I did starve some snails by keeping nutrients and algae so low.
mndfreeze
Invert Sexy Time!
Some astrea and trochus can live like 20+ years. In fact a lot of marine snails have fairly long life spans. I have some ninja star astrea that I bought out of my LFS's display because they didn't have any new ones that were in that tank for about 6 years.
Generally if snails are dying off on a repeat pattern there is something else going on. If there is algae forming on the glass if you don't scrape it every few days then food isn't the problem.
Fourstars
New member
I think reefers mainly forget that snails must eat too, run a tank that is low in nutrients that the snails starve. I dose just enough nitrate and phosphate to keep a nice growth of algae on the glass. I now have so many babies I might have to start a another tank to grow them out.
