[ravenmore]

Not a terribly big deal I suppose but I noticed today a "baby" strombus maculatus on the glass of my tank. And where there's one there should be up to a dozen more! Thought it was worth an honorable mention here.

For those who were wondering, strombus maculatus are sold from IPSF.com as strombus grazers. They're closely related to queen conchs and eat cyano. Hopefully I'll be able to get to a point where I can harvest some and sell to my lfs for credit....

later,
-Mike

[djheywood]

Me too. I added 6 from IPSF and they layed some eggs in the corners of my tank. Then suddenly I saw the little guys all over. I must have at least 10-15 babies hatch. We'll see how long they make it. Great snails!

[skipm]

If you do get enough that you want to get rid of them I would be interested in some if you wouldn't mind shipping to SC. Let me know. Skip

[gonereefin']

Hi: I was wondering if anyone ever got to the point that they would have any of these snails for sale?

Thanks,
Randy

[Ninong]

Mike,

Interesting. Another interesting thing is that IPSF is not selling Strombus maculatus. I don't know why Gerald persists in calling them that now that this has been brought to his attention. In fact, they aren't even strombids.

Interesting thread on RC: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...mbus+maculatus

Another interesting thread on RC with pictures of the mystery snails I purchased from IPSF as Strombus maculatus and pictures of a true Strombus maculatus: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...mbus+maculatus

Whatever they are, they're cute, they stay small and they eat algae. They're just not Strombus maculatus.

[ravenmore]

Originally Posted by Ninong

Mike,

Interesting. Another interesting thing is that IPSF is not selling Strombus maculatus. I don't know why Gerald persists in calling them that now that this has been brought to his attention. In fact, they aren't even strombids.

Interesting thread on RC: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...mbus+maculatus

Another interesting thread on RC with pictures of the mystery snails I purchased from IPSF as Strombus maculatus and pictures of a true Strombus maculatus: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...mbus+maculatus

Whatever they are, they're cute, they stay small and they eat algae. They're just not Strombus maculatus.

Hi Ninong, been a while, how ya been?

Actually I was a little suprised to see a response to this thread as it was almost 3 years old. I found out some time ago that they weren't s. maculatus, although they did eat a fair amount of algae and did multiply like crazy. Over the past year their population has declined and I haven't seen one in my tank for awhile. I suspect my psuedochromis might have had a fin in it. I would be curious to find out what they are though at some point, and I'd also like to get my hands on some true s. maculatus too.

later,
Mike

[Ninong]

Mike,

Oops! I didn't notice the original date!

I'm doing fine, thanks! The tank is finally up and running, believe it or not.


Randy,

I'm not sure if anyone other than IPSF is offering those snails for sale. I have had them reproduce in my tank but not to the point where there would be enough of them to offer to anyone else.

I think the problem is that our tanks can support only a certain number of grazing snails, which limits the populations of any offspring. I know that I started out with six of the so-called Strombus maculatus from IPSF and I now have probably around twenty of them. I started out with only three Stomatella varia from www.inlandaquatics.com and at one point I believe I had about thirty or forty of them but now I think I am down to only about fifteen or so. That's because I had a surprise invasion of a small trochid species that must have hitchhiked in on some live rock. These small trochids are strictly nocturnal and when I first noticed them they were carpeting every available surface in the tank -- live rock and all of the walls of the tank. It was really scary. At their peak I probably had at least 800 of them in my 120-gal tank but now I think I am down to only about 200. I'm just hoping they leave something for my other species of grazing snails to eat. It's a shame none of them seems to like my nuisance red algae at all.

The best guess on the so-called Strombus grazers from IPSF is that they are Columbellids of some sort. The best guess on my new mysterious little trochids (5mm maximum adult size) is that they are members of the Colonista genus. I have even been approached by one of the commercial online vendors about shipping some of these little trochids but I'm not interested in dealing with something like that. Right now I'm just hoping that they disappear. Someone else told me that they experienced the same thing and that after a period of weeks the population declined to a more sustainable and reasonable level. Right now they are everywhere and their shells litter my sump. They get into everything and there are just too many of them. However, they are very pretty under magnification. Nonetheless I would rather not have any of them in my tank because I fear they will affect the viability of my other snails.

[gonereefin']

Thanks for the post.
It seems that many species of snails have tendency to be simply to prolific. The last thing I need is something getting clogged up and resulting in a flood. I did buy 200 of some kind off ebay for cheep though, haven't got them yet but I'm hoping the folks who attest to the general nature of these things are right. It also seems that in a lot of cases, readers disagree about many species of snails. Even Dr. Ron and other well informed marine biologists/zoologists/aquarists/know-better-than-me types disagree about snails. Heck I just want a few that hate green hair algae as much as I do!
Randy