Why have snails?

[jgalvin]

ditto that, i've yet to see much use for snails. i have around 25 in my 34G and don't see any difference in algae, but i do see my coral frags all displaced. I moved about 10 in my sump to try to lesson the damage they and my hermits do to my coral (damage=dislodgeing it).

- james

We, too, enjoy finding finding our corals face down in the sand. Our Mystery Wrasse would be very sad if we stopped putting snails in, as he as found his own use for them.
As Finn said, I do think they keep the rocks clean. Also, any sand sifters are beneficial.

 

[bigblue141]

I have a couple hundred hermits and about a hundred snails in my 120. Although they do nothing for my acrylic work, they do keep the rocks nice and clean. My fish knock over more corals than anything else in my tank. They wait until I'm watching, knock my corals over so I'm forced to reach in, replace it, and they bite be like I'm their snack.

It's a daily occurance. I have almost all my corals in areas where my fish approve (They don't knock them over). :idea::idea::idea:

It's annoying that something with the brain the size smaller than a BB runs my life at my house :evil:

My snails do however keep my rock work nice and clean, and they even provide new homes to my hermits, even though there are hundreds of empty shells all over the tank for them to move into

 

[Faciosity]

I have tons of stomatella snails, and they do an amazing job with cleaning the rocks and are very good about navigating around without knocking things over. They have small cool looking shells too.

 

[ckoral]

I have cut back on snail orders also. I have noticed that I am unable to sustain only about 10% as was said earlier. I am talking about astreas. I don't see that they are really needed all that much. They also clog my 90 in my overflow.

 

[LynnMT]

I have not had much luck with snails they all seem to end upside down and back behind the rock where I can not reach them .

 

[jgalvin]

astreas are really good, i like the nassarious snails alot, not sure what they do, but they look cool coming out of the sand when i feed. my personal opinion, stay away from turbos.

I have cut back on snail orders also. I have noticed that I am unable to sustain only about 10% as was said earlier. I am talking about astreas. I don't see that they are really needed all that much. They also clog my 90 in my overflow.

 

[LynnMT]

astreas are really good, i like the nassarious snails alot, not sure what they do, but they look cool coming out of the sand when i feed. my personal opinion, stay away from turbos.

I have a few astreas and some nassarious. I agree they are the only ones worth having.

 

[ckoral]

are sea hairs save to have in the reef environment? I was thinking about getting one of them, but I thought some people had issues with them.
I think they might be a huge spike when they die, but they eat a lot of algae. Not sure. Would love to hear what people have to say about it.

 

[IWishIWasAFish]

+1 stomatella snails rock! They reproduce in the tank, and I never have to buy more. They eat algae and generally clean up, but were not quite enough alone.

I recently got a 3''-4'' long blue-spot sea hare, and in the space of a few weeks my 37 gallon reef went from a moderate overabundance of fluffy brown microalgae to almost none. He hasn't touched the macroalgae yet that I can see. I hear they can get sucked into unshielded powerheads and overflows, but mine all have screens over them. I'm a little concerned about him having enough to eat, and surviving my move and upgrade to a larger tank in June. If anyone wants to borrow him for a few months that might work out quite well. And if you like him, you can just buy him from me and I'll get another. Think I paid $15-20 for him at the LFS, but can't remember exactly.

 

[glasscabbage]

anything to diversify the ecosystem, not a fan of the sterile hospital room tanks my self.

 

[godzen]

planning my future CUC. currently have 2 turbos and a couple of astrea. I think I need some more astrea and nassarius for sand dwelling

 

[senji]

cerrith are great for sand siftind as well as sand stars. id stay away from turbo in a baby tank as turbo are clumbsy and knock over everything.frag plugs.which could be bad.like a frag touch or falls on another thats poisionous like hydrophora

 

[1guydude]

i get some nerites but really my blenny keeps my rock clean me thinks... some small hermits too...

 

[SaltwaterNoobs]

I only have a 2 gallon running right now that has snails. I've got one nassarius in there that does a great job keeping the sandbed clean. Have 2 stomatellas that hitchhiked in (LOVE those guys!), one cerith, and one margarita. My glass is super clean, and apparently the tank keep producing enough algae to feed that many snails in such a small system. I never have to use a mag float or clean the glass myself, and all these snails have lived in my tank for almost a year now. Love snails

 

[josh88]

To my experience. I'd keep to the smaller snails, I got 3 turbos based on what my lfs said. Not a good idea, I noticed more poo everywhere. And my glass not clean, I don't mind scraping my glass, puts in good habits for cleaning the tank. So I removed two turbo snails. And I have 4 hermit, they do good. I have one astrena, maybe 5 cerith that seems to be a good mix for my 28 gal

HTC EVO

 

[Will]

Janitors, I have 75 red leg hermits, about 25 blue leg hermits, 50 t0 60 snails, 20 or so turbos and a few cerinth and couple of other assorted snails in my 180 xtra deep. I think they are indespensible.

 

[dnjan]

I like the little, tiny peppermint snails (about 2mm diam by 4-5mm long). Interesting to watch them come out at night.

 

[MAC2]

A little late, but my two cents. I didn't think my snails were doing too much until my clowns laid some eggs. They won't let anything near them, including snails. Now I can see a semi-circle ring of algae growing around the eggs. It showed me that the snails do indeed clean the rock surfaces off.

 

[morkal]

I stayed away from turbos after one I had was the size of a golf ball. I mainly stick to astreas and ceriths nassrauis. as for glass staying clean thats not only the snails job that is your job.

 

[mercenary-grunt]

wow here comes the past. long ago posting. any who. the snails control the rocks and such to keep the rocks better. i belive that they also eat the diatoms in the rocks. they are good to have but they can be avoided by cleaner water. I prefer the smaller ones just for my taste. but there are other things like the lawnmowers that do the same thing. or urchin. but im a lazy hobbist so I keep fowler and snails.

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