Snails n Crabs

[DoranNemo06]

I have had a saltwater tank now for a few years and it seems that I am always having to restock my snails and crabs that I get to control the algie. Although I see some of them at night it just seems like some of them die off in about a month. And then I have to buy more its just a money eater. Any suggestions I would love to hear them. Oh I do have a UV light but still get some green algie so they are not starving to death.

[BlueCorn]

[moved]

[DoranNemo06]

Explain please

[bertoni]

The previous post means the thread was moved from some other forum to this one.

What kind of animals are you buying? How are you acclimating them?

[xenon]

Are you're crabs killing the snails?

You dont need crabs to control algee

[BlueCorn]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8827681#post8827681 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DoranNemo06
Explain please

You made your post in the "Feedback and Questions" forum. That forum is for problems with, or questions about, this site.

I moved your post into this forum in an effort to get you a helpful response.

[Wrench]

are you offering larger empty shells for the hermits to move into as they grow? I put some new empty shells in my tank yesterday and already saw 5 hermits in new homes, guess I should have done it sooner.

[chem-e]

I've never had much luck either with snails. They seem to live for a couple of months and then slowly start to die off. Now I'm at the point of just using hermits to control the algae on the rocks. For hermits, I stay strictly with scarlet hermit crabs. They're not very aggresive, so they don't fight with each other and when I had snails, they didn't bother them either (not like the blue legs). For all the algae on the glass, my magnet cleaner takes care of that.

If your hermits are dying off too, then they're probably killing each other off (especailly if they're blue legs) or they could have been sick to start with.

It seems like most here suggest keeping only snails w/o crabs. You can try going with snails only if you think that the hermits do more harm than good. I tried that and it seemed like I was just buying snails every month. Now I'm trying the opposite.

[SuperNerd]

The only time I had trouble keeping snails and hermits was when I had too many of them (they starved), acclimated them too quick, or picked unhealthy ones close to death.

If there isn't empty shells laying around that the hermits can fit into when they are forced to grow they will kill snails. When there is not a lot of what they need/want to eat they will also kill snails (and other things for that matter).

Keeping their numbers to a minimum and only adding more when you think you need more may prevent you from losing them. JME

[DoranNemo06]

Thanks for all your help, I will try only restocking the snails next time. I only have dwarf crabs no blue leg ones there a plenty shells for them to change in to.. I just use them for clean up of the waste. I recently got some red footed snails and I love them they are so cool to look at. I know there has to be some algie but I try for the cleanest looking tank I can get. I get all my live stock from Foster n Smith and they are great in refunding my money if I have any die off. I would not even think about going to a local fish store they have no refund policy.

[SuperNerd]

Red Footed Snail?
I think that's a temperate snail.

[DoranNemo06]

Ok whats a temperate snail? I just know they are great for cleaning the glass and my overflow in the tank. Are there others that are like them? These seem to be a rare find..

[bertoni]

Temperate waters is a term for areas that are cooler than the tropical reefs we are keeping. Snails from those regions often don't do well. I didn't think the red-footed snails were useful for eating algae in any case. I'd recommend some Trochus or Stomatella, or maybe some tropical cerith snails.

[SuperNerd]

Yes, I believe the Red Footed Moon Snail/Kelp Snail/ Norris' Top Snail(http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=570)actually comes from the coast of middle California and feeds off the algae growing on the kelp that grow in those cold waters. Scroll down this link: http://www.underwaterphotography.com/Photo-Contest/View.asp?ID=4438&Buy=true

More pics:
http://www.oceanlight.com/lightbox.php?sp=norrisia_norrisi

They will slowly cook to death in warm reef waters.