Snails and Sea grass

[monicaswizzle]

Well, I should have thought about it.

Several months back I planted a 75 gallon tank to sea grass. The sea grass had started to establish nicely (root growth and photosynthesis) when I needed to move the tank to another room. (My wife decided she preferred a TV after all, sigh!) So, in the process I expanded to a 90 gallon tank. Transplanting everything set the grass back and caused a minor algae bloom (probably from disturbing the sediments). Without thinking about it I added a bunch of snails to the tank to control the algae. Which they did. They also ate all of the grass.

The worst offenders seemed to be the large Mexican turbo snails. Once I realized what was going on I removed all of them from the tank. I still have about a dozen "turban snails" and "margarita snails" in the tank (less than 1" in size). Too early to tell if the grass will come back from the roots or not.

What are your experiences with snails in a planted tank? Are any of the species OK, or should I remove them all? I don't mind if they eat some of the grass, but clearly don't want them to totally wipe it out.

 

[Samala]

True Astraea, and chestnut turban snails (I think they are a Turbo species.. ?) from the Caribbean region have worked well for me. They did not graze any of the seagrasses or my more desirable macroalgaes. Well, so far.

Sorry for the bad luck! It'll be interesting to see if the grasses return from their roots. If the colony was large enough it should have stored mass to put out a new set of leaves.

>Sarah

 

[graveyardworm]

The dominant snails species in my seagrass tank are Columbellids. They are very Nassarius in appearance but are grazers. Their max size is 1/2 inch and they keep the seagrasses clean and algae free. They also like to lay their eggs on the seagrasses. They reproduce very well for me. You can find columbellid grazers at IPSF under the label Strombus grazers.

Here's a picture of one of them on a blade of Halodule.

 

[3D-Reef]

Over the yrs I've had many different types of snails in with turtle grass.None of them that I've noticed,go after the grass.
I wonder if transplanting to the 90 might make a difference?I had to wait 6-12 months,before My sump would support grasses without dieing off.

 

[monicaswizzle]

Thanks for the suggestions/thoughts. It is true that I am not sure if it was the snails or transplant shock. Some of the grass seems to be coming back now, so I will just wait and see how it goes.