Re: Where to get conches?
 

you might want to stick with fighting conches and forget about the queen, for one the queens get real big.. and second they spend a lot of time on the rocks (climbing) fighting conches are smaller and tend to stay in the sand.. I have never seen mine anywhare other than the sand in the 3 months I have had them.. and I have not heard of anyone seeing "True" fighting conches anywhare other than the sand bed.

another thing to keep in mind is that they clean a lot of sand fairly fast. it took two of them about 2 weeks to make my sand bed look brand new again after it was totaly covered with Cyno and diatoms.. I have about 3 square feet of sand exposed. if you only have about 2 square feet or less of sand exposed I would only get 1.

I got mine from Sea Care as J&L only had a queen and they were not bringing in fighting conches untill the fall (so maybe ask them as it is now fall)

I would also watch whare you buy them from and look at them your self there seams to be a lot of places passing of a species of Welk off as fighting conch. the shell is very simular but you can tell if you see the critter.. the fighting conch will have a black elefant like trunk and two eyes on stalks, cute littl guys.

this is one of mine when I first got him
http://members.shaw.ca/stircrazy/critters/conch1.jpg

and now 3 months later and almost 3 times the size
http://members.shaw.ca/crystalk/conch.jpg

hope this has helped..

Steve

Cool. There are a few people with Queens so I would like to hear how fast they are growing in everyone's tank. If they grow about as fast as snails then I probably won't worry too much because my snails don't grow all that fast. I could probably even give them away once they reach a large size.

J&L isn't planning to get fighting conchs in from the Email that I got. I wonder why not and why don't more stores carry them?

Hi,

I have a queen conch and it has grown from 3/4" to about 1.5 inches in 3 months. Queen conches tend to be more productive than fighting conches. Fighting conches will tend to feed during the night and sleep during the day -- they don't need as much food as a Queen. Both conches will stay on the sand and eat diatoms for lunch. If they don't stay on the sand, then they could be a Welk. Also, conches leap or jump when the move...Welk's do not.

All in all, I am happy with my queen. It is a something unique in the tank. If it gets too big...then I will donate her to the local aquarium or it will be an excuse for my dream tank....

- Victor.

My fighting conches are active during the day. Two of them keep the sand bed clean in a 155gal.

hmm you better talk to mine then LOL they eat 24 hours a day then they burry themselves for 2 days to 7 days and do what ever.. when the emerge after a long time they are visabley bigger. the fighting conch can be deciving in its movement.. I have seen mine move along smothly and slowly, I have sean them lerch along.. and I have seen them use there "Claw" to jump over a rock or a hermit that was trying to pester it.
myne were 3/4" long when I got them about 3 months ago and like I said they have pretty much trippled in size.. I would say 2.5" easy.. they are both fast growers.

and if it doesent stay one the sand it could be a queen also.. they are climbers (yours might not climb and it might not ever climb, but the queens are knowen for there habit of climbing as aposed to the fighting's normal habit of not climbing) .. but it would be easyer to tell a large queen from a welk.

Steve

Hi,

I read some stuff on conches before I bought my queen. I had the impression that fighting conches stayed small (4-5 inches), so they don't need to eat or graze as much as a queen...that grow to 12 inches. I guess there may be other conches that look like fighting conches but they don't sleep during the day. Sorry about the generalization.

- Victor.

my understanding on it was they stay 4 to 5 " but they get there rather quickly if you have the food for them.. at full size a fighting conch will need about 2 square feet of sand bed to keep it alive.. I think this is with out suplamental feeding.. the queen does get even larger (I have a 13" shell from a queen) but it is its ability to become a bulldozer that I made the desision not to get one on.. I don't belive in the " I will give it to a zoo/fish store/ect when it gets to big" idea.. so I chose the size that I would be able to maintain in my tank..

Steve

ORA is working on fighting conchs right now. Apparantly they are on the small side and are subject to harrasment from hermit crabs who are jealous of their shells. They are at about 15mm now and will sell when they are at about 25mm (about 6 more weeks). As soon as they are ready you should be able to find them in stores in Western Canada.

Steve,

The aquarium thing was a back up plan, but I am serious planning a bigger tank to keep the conch and a few other spacing loving creatures (like my yellow tang).

Hmmm...I seem to recall that you have several fighting conches. If all of them were 4 inches in length, wouldn't you have the same problem as my single queen conch ?

- Victor.

if you call 2 conches several :roll: .. sure.. but I have the required amount of space in my main tank for 2 fighting conch.. if I decide to add more rock.. I will move one to the bottom tank..

Steve