cowrie snail

[goldfish]

I just purchased a pretty large cowrie snail for my 75g fowlr tank. Friends in the tank are a picasso trigger, niger trigger, snowflake eel and lg. sailfin tang. I am still having trouble with brown algae even though I've been up and running for 18 months. I have read on this board that trochus or cowrie snails are ok for an aggressive tank. He's pretty big so I'm hoping that everyone leaves him alone and lets him do his cleaning job! Right now he's still in the bag floating...wish me luck!

 

[pufferlover]

goldfish; all you can do is try. I have large snails such as yours and have had them do well in my Dogface Puffers tank (as long as they stay on glass). I have had them with Triggers and they did not fare well if the Trigger could get them on their back. All you can do is try and see what happens.

 

[lionfish]

LionFish says......
Well, the only thing I can say is that I hope you don't have a good amount of rock near the glass. As you have already noticed they are very large snails and require a good deal of space. Just as long as you have no rockwork near the glass you'll be alright. If you do, it could spell trouble. They are BIG and can knock over rocks easily. I have seen where they have knocked over rocks and the glass was broken as the rocks hit it. Just a warning. If not, than you should enjoy watching the little guy. Good luck with him.

 

[goldfish]

Puffer, so far so good! He kind of sat around in the corner today, but by the end of the night he was moving around a bit. Niger caught a glimpse of him moving and nipped at him, but he closed up for awhile and is now getting ready to hop up on the glass. It's dark so my triggers have tucked themselves in, so hopefully Mr. Snail will get some work done!! Thanks!

 

[goldfish]

another update....I saw that he had moved over to the other side of the tank by this morning, but not moving at all. He was not upside down either. I did check him to make sure he was "still there" and he seems to be all tucked inside his shell. He has stayed in the same place all day and has not tried to move. Is there a chance they they flipped him over and had him for a late night snack? What would it look like if they had? I know it's a dumb question, but would it look completely empty? yesterday he started moving around a bit after a few hours, but today he(or just the empty shell!) has not budged.

 

[goldfish]

He still has not moved!! I am beginning to think they had a snack last night...it still looks like part of his body is in there--that being the operative word "PART". I can't really tell though. I guess I'll just give it another day and see.

 

[justchillin]

i have one in my 75 w/ a snowflake eel...no problems (except he managed to knock the PH of my hang on skimmer the other day and it blew sand everywhere)...
i would think it would start moving around again unless either one of your fish attacked it or of you water quality is a little off...
what are your readings??
does it have it's little weird coving over its shell??
if so does it draw back at all when you touch it??
i need some more info,
mike.

 

[goldfish]

It's dark now and he's on the move!! yeah! He just hadn't budged an inch in 12 hours so I thought maybe my trigs had gotten hold of him and made a midnight snack out of him.
Thanks though!!

 

[mal]

I had a cowrie for a while. He kept knocking over my corals, and on occasion would knock over a rock. I got rid of it for fear of damaging my corals. They are pretty much night time feeders in my experience. Then in the light they find a spot to sleep. It did do a great job in the algea control dept. though.

 

[goldfish]

Mal,
You are right and that he only does his work during the night, but I must say he's not very efficient. Other people I've talked with say that cowrie's are not very good algae eaters. So far mine is showing those attributes! I also got a couple mexican turbos to help out--so far they hang out on the rocks. Oh well.