Turbo snails falling off glass

[Ryan7]

I have 3 turbo snails in my 33g reef tank and they keep falling off the glass into the sand. They can't flip themselves over so I put them back on the glass, they begin to eat, but 10-30m later fall off again. Is there a specific reason they are doing this?

amonia,nitrite,nitrate levels at 0
temp at 79

 

[Anonymous]

there's a good possibility that the turbo's were dead/dying before you purchased 'em.between the time of holding after collection, and the time at the lfs, there digestive tracts ability to process food may well be irreversibly damaged-due to simple starvation-add to that the marginal(usually) amounts of food present in the tank, and voila! weak snails.

fwiw-i've always seen good portions of turbo shipments die within a week or two, after arriving at the lfs's i've worked at-(how much food for 'em do you think is available at the lfs's tank, in proportion to the amount of snails? :wink: )

also fwiw-adding bioload to solve algae problems is a bit self defeating, don't you think? :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

vitz;

adding bioload to solve algae problems is a bit self defeating, don't you think?

vitz,do you use them at all?

 

[Anonymous]

right now, i don't have a tank! -
however, once my 75 was up and running,i added quite a few-partly on the (what i now believe was mistaken)advice of a colleague. most of 'em did die off, and i was left with two or three, that did o.k.

interestingly enough,i hardly had any buildup of algae on the acrylic surfaces of the tank-it required a wiping about twice a year(coralline was the far bigger problem!)

food for thought-most people who add turbo's (imho) tend to make one major mistake-they use the amount of algae present in the system at the time of introduction of the snails(which includes accumulation of previous growth)to gauge the amount of snails needed,-rather than an estimation of what the tank can truly support based on its daily algae production.

that period of accumulation also is usually when PO4 buildup is occuring at a faster rate, when the system is 'younger', so the daily production after the addition of the turbo's is even lower than the 'pre turbo' period.

the key to truly dealing with any nuisance organism, is to eliminate the factors contributing to its growth,not to add another organism to eat it.
(hint-turbo grazer poop feeds algae :wink: )once the food source of the algae is eliminated, the algae will die-it has no other choice!

my reef ran for an additional 3 yrs., app.,with only the 2-3 turbos-no microalgae problem,damsels spawning regularly, and constant pruning of soft corals necessary on a monthly basis.

here's a fuzzy pic of the left side(sorry, it's a still capture from video)

 

[Anonymous]

it's taken me a while to get there, but i agree. snails seem to be optional in a reef tank.

when i started it was common to hear one advise to keep 1 per every 2 gallons of water. :? i did that originally- oh, for a bunch of those buggers everywhere. pair that up with the 1 hermit for every gallon and i had quite the party goin on in there.

i see more and more tanks without any at all.do you keep hermits when your tank's up?

 

[Anonymous]

it's taken me a while to get there, but i agree. snails seem to be optional in a reef tank.

when i started it was common to hear one advise to keep 1 per every 2 gallons of water. :? i did that originally- oh, for a bunch of those buggers everywhere. pair that up with the 1 hermit for every gallon and i had quite the party goin on in there.

i see more and more tanks without any at all.do you keep hermits when your tank's up?

another thing, in addition to light, that is mistakenly recommended with water as the defining criterion(sp?) :wink: it's the surface area of algae available that matters,together with the amount of algae growth rate/unit of area, that's important-i've heard people say as high as 4 turbos/sq.ft.! lol: :lol (i doubt that a properly run tank could support half that)

kept a few scarlets, btw-'cuz i liked 'em as cool looking critters-they also liked the shells from the dead turbo's! :lol:

i think some of the 'clean-up crew' critters should be added much later than when most people add them, if at all,-and at a slower rate, to make sure that they don't overstep what the tank can truly support-alot of hobbyists may find that the live sand, and it's fauna, may be enough, if they get the algae/diatom issues controlled through good management issues, first.(just mho)

 

[reefland]

FWIW - I have zero hermit crabs and only a single snail in my 180 gallon tank. It's a Tiger Trochus left over from the early days.

Been that way for a year or so now.

 

[Reefguide]

I too for a while had no hermits and snails... They were BIG and actually picking at my xenias and several polyps.. added like 5 small hermits not too long ago. and like 3 snails... Snails never ate anything but always nocked stuff down !

 

[EmilyB]

Turbos often target green algae that is not always available. Try putting your turbos on a rock with some nori on it, to see if they are starving. My turbos will still hit the nori clip at night often.

 

[aesop]

When i first started my snails would have the same problems. It may just be coincidence but they started being alot more lively once the following was done:

Calcium was raised from 200's to 400's
Added some iodine (i don't do this anymore)

The snails that survived actually have a section of growth spurt that is very noticable.

 

[scottgjerdingen]

If I recall correctly this happened to me once. I found I had a low magnesium level and when this was boosted back up to ~1350 the problem seemed to go away. Coincidence or correlation, I am not sure.

- scott -