Baby Snails?

[daghostryder]

Okay so I thought maybe hitchhikers that went unnoticed when I noticed 4-5 of these tiny turbo snails in my tank they are not much bigger than the size of a pin head. Then I found a bunch more in my sump in various sizes. Do theses guys really breed in our tanks with all the preditors?? Keep in mind i had a snail free sump. That was jail for my crabs i had at startup.

Also could they be the cause of my DKH wanting to drop as of lately. I added some corals and got the typical dip in ALK but over the past few day I keep having to add ALK to maintain my 8.0-8.5 range. Which i thought strange. Thoughts??

[rocklobster1]

No snails do not affect dkh. probably hitchikers since they do look like turbos.

[daghostryder]

The plot thickens. I only have nassarius, cerith, nerite snails. I too thought hitchhiker but I have as of last count 8 in my tank and approximately 15 more in the sump. I am very particular on what goes in the display and there are none in the qt. I have not tried to move the cheato to see what lies beneath ......lol. Anyone else on what type of snail?

[daghostryder]

Sorry I did say turbo, but should have said Trochus...BONK. Just got a positive ID. Thanks. Never had any snails reproduce in any of my tanks. NEVER

[ramseynb]

Sorry I did say turbo, but should have said Trochus...BONK. Just got a positive ID. Thanks. Never had any snails reproduce in any of my tanks. NEVER



I was going to say, it looks like a baby Trochus snail. Congrats! I’ve had some get buck wild in my tank before and cloudy up the water (always after a water change) but never found babies. The only “snail” I’ve ever had that had offspring were stomatella snails.

[daghostryder]

Thanks Guys!! I never really thought of them surviving the process to become the size they are. Mystery managed.

[Crooked Reef]

My snails breed all the time. Google reef snail eggs and you will see the clusters they lay on the glass, you may recognize them and didn’t know what they were when you say it. I have had cerith and banded trophy’s breed before.

[Imaexpat2]

I have gotten my Banded Troches Snails to breed in my tank multiple times in the not to distant pass. There for a while they were being so prolific I started supplying all my friends and the LFS with hundreds of them! So yes its quiet possible that you had some live rock with eggs on them in your tank that hatched and made it through the gauntlet of life in your glass box.

[daghostryder]

Yeah I have seen eggs all over my glass. I have the common patterns from the cerith and the not so common pattern from nassarius, but like Imaexpat2 points out "the gauntlet of life in our glass box." is such that I never think twice about them ever making it to full term. Shoot sometimes i clean them off the glass myself at feeding time. lol I will stop doing that today! So when i saw what looked like snails i was pretty confused...to be honest I am still amazed this took place in my tank.

[Tripod1404]

Trochus snails breed a lot in tanks. I had an issue with their babies going into pumps and jamming the propellers.

And they can influence the alk levels, although I doubt it would be noticeable. Their gastropod shells are made of calcium carbonate. So they would consume alk and calcium.

[Tripod1404]

No snails do not affect dkh. probably hitchikers since they do look like turbos.

Gastropod shell is made out of calcium carbonate.

[daghostryder]

Gastropod shell is made out of calcium carbonate.

Thank you that is what I was taught, but was not sure and never expected it to be noticeable. I know I typically get a drop when I add a set of corals this time it was a little larger then usual and caused me some concern since it took a few days of watching the CA and Alk for it to balance out again. All seems to be well.

I moved the cheato and found a whole bunch of babies there and even more dead shells. Seems like my convict crabs had a nice meal.