Snails how many?

[parmaker]

I bought 2 snails to see how they would do. How many total would I need for a 55 g, and how many hermits would you get as well?

[sml41]

I have about 12 for a 30 gallon tank; fish store told me that is fine; I would say 2 is on the low side

[parmaker]

i didnt want to buy 10 or 12 and they die. so i bought 2 to see how the would react. my tank is only 3 weeks old.

[DLANDINO]

I have heard and used the usually recommended 1 nasarius snail per 2 gallons of water. The do well. Be careful of hermits if you will be keeping corals.

[HammerDude33]

you don't "need" any snails. a mag float works much better.

i highy disagree with "1 nassarius per 2 gallons of water".
they are not algae grazers and eat meaty foods and detrius. they will starve unless you target feed them.
they also rob your corals of food (if you target feed lps) they are a PITA.
keep them sparingy.

[HammerDude33]

oops..i forgot to comment on the "Be careful of hermits if you will be keeping corals" comment as well.
no offense meant, but what kind of hermits are you referring to?
blue legs and red legs don't bother corals at all. and if you don't mind them killing a snail here and there, their presence can only help the reef.
maybe you might want to clarify that a bit.

[95accord]

i have 5 olive snails (sand sifters) , 8 astreal, 2 indo-pacific turbo, 5 hermit...and a unknown amount of what look like baby snails/slugs.....
IMO i need about 5-7 minimum more snails to be happy.

[alve]

In my 156gallon: 10 Nassarius, 10 Cerith, 2 Turbo's

[HammerDude33]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11911618#post11911618 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by alve
In my 156gallon: 10 Nassarius, 10 Cerith, 2 Turbo's

that's alot more accurate.

i have 10 nassarius in my 200. i'm ready to get rid of about 5.
i also have about 20 assorted algae eating snails, which i could take or leave. i have a couple astrea in the frag tank. that's about it.
my tank is not covered with algae. pay more attention to your water quality, and DOC's(dissolved organic compounds), and your algae will be very little.

it's personal preference on the algae eating snails really...if you like them, get some. i scrape the viewing glass with a mag float fairly regularly, and use a blade style scraper once in a while for coralline.

[Bremmon]

This is a good question. . . I am ready to get snails and currently have 3 hermits (2 scarlet reef and 1 blue leg) and don't plan on any more than that.

This seems to be one of those questions that has virtually unlimited viewpoints (get snails, don't need snails, etc.).

One thing I know is that some snails need babysitting as they can turn over requiring the keeper (you) to turn them back over (I think those are astreal snails).

Some snails are good if you have a DSB, which I don't, so I'll stay away from those.

I don't feel comfortable putting 40+ snails in my tank so I'll keep it down to 10 - 20.

Trochus snails sound promising so I'll get a few of those.

I will use a goby for the sand cleanup detail.

If I start to have a serious algae outbreak or my crabs decide that midnight snacks are the greatest, then I'll increase the number of snails.