spiny star astrea snails

[coralnub]

I got a couple of these because they were different and I needed some grazers. Too bad they didn't last long as my Nassarius snails flipped them over and ate them as soon as they hit the sand bed

I watched it happen to one of them, 2 Nassarius were fighting over who was gonna get under the edge to flip it over. These are the larger Tongan Nassarius snails.

I got the spiny snails from an lfs, but I noticed they were new at liveaquaria. Just a heads up to people who might be considering them.

 

[coralnub]

A second tip:

Don't bother paying more for the orange turbo's. They look sweet, but turn purple with coraline quick enough.

 

[pagojoe]

That doesn't surprise me too much. If you want to try again, put the Astraea snails in a quarantine tank for a few hours, and let them get settled in before you move them to your tank with the Nassarius. As for the orange turbos, if you want to keep them orange, you can take them out and scrape the shells with a thin-bladed pocket knife. It won't cut into the shell material, but will remove all the coralline growth. The turbos can seal up well enough that it won't hurt them to be out of the tank a few minutes while you scrape them.

Cheers,



Don

 

[coralnub]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14147411#post14147411 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pagojoe
That doesn't surprise me too much. If you want to try again, put the Astraea snails in a quarantine tank for a few hours, and let them get settled in before you move them to your tank with the Nassarius. As for the orange turbos, if you want to keep them orange, you can take them out and scrape the shells with a thin-bladed pocket knife. It won't cut into the shell material, but will remove all the coralline growth. The turbos can seal up well enough that it won't hurt them to be out of the tank a few minutes while you scrape them.

Cheers,



Don

I don't think that would really help. They were doing fine but when they left the rocks to cross the sand bed, that's when the other snails got em.

 

[pagojoe]

Right, but the move probably stressed them, so they "smelled" like prey to the Nassarius. If you can get them settled so that they don't smell inviting to the Nassarius snails, they might (or might not) leave them alone.

Cheers,



Don