Snail complaint

Doug · #1 10-06-2012, 05:40 PM

So I decided to mix up the snails in my recent livestock order. Never again.
I dont know whats so attractive about either margarita or astrea snails. I have had it with picking them up to put back upright. What a pain.

I usually stick to larger type turbo,s. Trochus snails are the best I have ever had. Good algae eaters and the ability to flip themselves over. Plus I still have some that are several years old, plus some larger unknown turbo snails that must be even older.

Several of the new smaller snails, besides creating work for me, have died already. Bad enough my 3 new peppermints never even made it much over a week.

Anyways, I will stick to trochus from now on and I ordered kalk to deal with the job the shrimp were to do. And removed my sandbed after deciding it was a waste of time and had to buy more to look after it.

On a good side note, the 30 small cerith snails I bought seem to be doing a good job and taking care of themselves.

AquaticFinatic · #2 10-06-2012, 05:59 PM

I like cerith more as they are good little workers. No flipping either.

toytech · #3 10-06-2012, 06:47 PM

Ceriths are great all around , and astreas have been great for me too , both the regular and the spiny shelled . Turbos on the other hand i find a pain , mine have never been self righting and there bull dosers . I just had a turbo die in my frag tank and i dont know what it is about them but my god they smell terrible when there dead , and when my heater let go a while back my house smelled like snail stink for a week and a half .

Northernseacorals · #4 10-06-2012, 07:34 PM

If they flip over I just let the hermits kill them for the new shells... I know that sounds super mean; but I cannot be bothered to be the snail police.

Delphinus · #5 10-06-2012, 09:17 PM

Same here. There are a bunch of species that just probably shouldn't even be offered, the mortality is way too high, and their effectiveness at grazing is probably questionable at best. Trochus, turbos, and cerith are my favourites too. The downer with turbos though is still you buy 10 and you'll end up with 3-4 that make it. And even in my 300g-ish tank I can tell when a snail has kicked off, they put a spike on the bioload for sure.

Doug · #6 10-07-2012, 03:01 AM

I usually stick with Trochus Tony, unless there is a turbo sale close by. I still have a few I bought from Red Coral a couple years ago. The trochus seem to graze as well as any, are long lived and can flip themselves over.

Coasting · #7 10-07-2012, 03:43 AM

Wow I found it the exact opposite. I had started out by buying 3 Trochus and 3 Astreas (not as initial CUC). I was flipping over each trochus at least twice a day, then ended up with them all being dead within a month. Astreas, I think I've flipped 2 total in the last 10 months since starting the tank, and I think both times I was the one that knocked them over. Ceriths again maybe 2 in the last 9 months. I've found my astreas to be great for algae, bought a few more last month because I love them so much.

Maybe I got stuck with the stupid trochus, but man I hated flipping those suckers over, never again!

Doug · #8 10-07-2012, 03:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coasting

Wow I found it the exact opposite. I had started out by buying 3 Trochus and 3 Astreas (not as initial CUC). I was flipping over each trochus at least twice a day, then ended up with them all being dead within a month. Astreas, I think I've flipped 2 total in the last 10 months since starting the tank, and I think both times I was the one that knocked them over. Ceriths again maybe 2 in the last 9 months. I've found my astreas to be great for algae, bought a few more last month because I love them so much.

Maybe I got stuck with the stupid trochus, but man I hated flipping those suckers over, never again!

Strange, I have never seen one not being able to flip itself over. They still need a hard surface to attach and flip. I hear of them not being able to on a sandbed.

Coasting · #9 10-07-2012, 03:49 PM

No matter what they were on, they always managed to land at least an inch or 2 away from any surface on the sand bed and laid there upside down twirling their foot in circles not accomplishing a thing. Thats why I first bought the trochus because of their famous ability to right themselves. But I didn't think I would have to be flipping the stupid things over twice a day. The astreas just dont fall over.
All though... The trochus seemed to land in the sand with the tip of their shell directly down, where as the astreas seem to land on the side of the shell and have better luck where they land? (from what I've seen in my tank anyway) and are usually close enough to the glass or rock to just grab on.

Dont know what to say about Nerites, bought 3, only 1 survived the 20 min drive home from J&L, and I dont notice a path of squeaky clean glass after he passes like I do with the astreas. Haven't had to flip him. Have had to flip my Cowries once I think. The Nassarius snails obviously flip themselves, thankfully otherwise I wouldn't get away with tossing them to the other side of the tank when they harass my coral at feeding time.

Enigma · #10 10-07-2012, 04:47 PM

I've never had to flip a Mexican Turbo over, but I did kill three of the four I had with high mag levels.

I have mostly spiny Astrea, and I've needed to rescue a couple in the last few months. They are great cleaners. I have no experience with the regular Astrea snails.

I have one (I think) cherith snail left (killed most of them with flatworm exit), and that is a trouble free snail. I'll be ordering a pile of them in the next month or so. They don't do much individually, so an army is needed.

I've never tried margarita snails, as I've read that marine tanks are too warm for them: apparently they're a temperate species. I haven't tried trochus, as I had read that they can't right themselves.

Nassarius are trouble free, too.