Ring cowries

[trilinearmipmap]

I have read about these. Now they are available at J & L.

What type of algae do they eat, do they just eat algae or will they also clean up detritus/leftover food etc?

I have 3 turbo snails, 8 Astrea snails, 2 ceriths and 2 nassarius snails as well as a yellow tang and a Hippo tang for algae control, I have no problems with algae but a few small areas of algae here and there.

I'd like to get the ring cowries for diversity and to help in the overall cleanup, any feedback on these animals? Also what has people's experience been with receiving snails etc by air freight, do they usually survive or not?

[Samw]

I have a bunch of Money and Ring Cowries. I see no impact from them in my tank. They are small and don't eat much in my opinion. For eating slime algae, I found the Trocheus snails to be the very best. They cleaned up my tank very well after I added them to my tank. Most of the brown slime was gone. My tank became noticeably "cleaner" on the glass even though I already had Astreas and Ceriths and Cowries previously.

[sumpfinfishe]

As Sam already mentioned, I too have not seen any negitive impact on the reef. I have 4 of both variety's and have found that even though they don't eat much due to there size, the benfit I like for using cowries is they can get into small places where my hand, cleaning magnet, or snail's just can't fit! I see the cowries a lot cleaning in tight spot's between the rock and the glass and in other small area's too like behind my MJ1200 and around the ellbows on my returns :biggrin:
IMO-there worthy little house cleaners :exclaim:

[danny zubot]

Do any of you have a pic of these cowrie's? I don't believe I've ever seen one! :mrgreen:

[sumpfinfishe]

I will take an image next time I see one, ALTHOUGH I'm sure Sam will beat me to the punch :razz: :biggrin:

[Quinn]

From J&L's site...

http://www.jlaquatics.com/images/custodian/cowrie-ring.jpg

[Samw]

I will take an image next time I see one, ALTHOUGH I'm sure Sam will beat me to the punch :razz: :biggrin:

I like challenges. :razz:

But I admit, these pics were taken a while ago. Cowries spend a lot of time sitting on their eggs. For me, Cowries are great as ornaments. I buy them because they look cool. I don't buy them because I need them for algae control. I buy Trocheus snails for that. In addition, the red banded Trocheus look nice.

PICS OF COWRIES (http://www.hyperdream.com/~samw/reef/Critters/Cowrie/)