infuse
New Member
I have been setting up a reef aquarium for the past few months. I have a cleaning crew that includes about 15 Astrea snails. About two weeks ago I noticed what looked like white marks on a few of their shells. At first I thought it might be die-off of whatever was growing on the shells when they were purchased. Since then I've noticed that about three quarters of the snails have white marks on their shells. I plucked one over to the glass to get a good look and it appears that the shells are scraped or ground down. The scraps are in a random pattern and usually on the top half of the shells. I haven't found any empty broken shells although a few of my blue-legged hermit crabs seem to be wearing new Astrea shells - not scraped though. I'm trying to figure out what is happeneing. I have two peppermint shrimp, a few rogue crabs that I have been catching, and a few small bristle worms in the sand. I also have a very small (4mm) pistol shrimp that I haven't seen in months although I do hear occasional individual popping noices in the night. I have no fish in the tank yet. Does have anyone have an idea of what is happening?
Thanks.
Thanks.