Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster
Also, I should point out that Cerith snails also reproduce in aquariums, but not quite as prolifically, in my experience. But they are readily available and cheap. I keep both, and I shudder to think what my tank would be like without them!
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I've also had ceriths reproduce. Has been awesome. My sand for a year and a half now has had tiny ceriths everywhere.
the reproducers were of this form.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster
Having new snails hatching all the time means there are many different sizes at any given time, which is very good in a planted tank. Tiny snails are superb macro and seagrass cleaners.
Highly sought after? I'm not sure. Their population swells to plague proportions, which is not a look everyone likes. I've gotten so used to it, I don't even notice them anymore. But some folks don't like to see so many snails in their tank.
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yep, 4 kinds of snails that reproduce in my system - ceriths mentioned earlier, stomatella, and hitchhiker chitons (weird & great, they graze glass and rock ONLY UNDER the sand), and limpets (totally slow and useless, don't make a dent in anything - glad they almost got wiped out by asterinas)
My point about in-tank reproducers being undervalued is that a grazer that scales up to algae production is going to make algae management easier (and I'd argue healthier for the tank) than having to chase low nutrient numbers as the control switch for algae.
So yeah, I'm interested in finding different species of algae grazers - especially less picky ones - that can reproduce in a tank. BTW, did you find that your tank could have a hermit or two that occasionally killed snails and your snail population still thrive? Sorry to hijack your seagrass thread to talk about snails no one cares about :-)