Nocturnal astrea snails

[Shilpan]

Added an astrea snail, assumed it died because I read that inverts are hard to keep for beginners bad I didn't see it for 3-4 days.

Anyway found out it was coming out at night. Just curious, is this normal for marine snails? They're nocturnal? I supppse defense wise for a slow animal it makes sense.

 

[2quills]

Sounds like it didn't acclimate very well. But if it's moving now then it should survive. What's your tank temperature?

 

[Shilpan]

24.5 to 25.5 degrees Celsius. (76-78 Fahrenheit)

Hmm ok, I did it over 2 hours, 20mL
Of water at a time with a syringe and bag in tank.

I can never find it in the day, it's deep in the live rock somewhere. But once lights off it comes out within 30-60mins and starts moving everywhere.

 

[deejeff0442]

Weird mine are.always out and about. I don't acclimate snails. just float the bag for a bit and put them in.
I have some huge snails for over a year still doing good good

 

[2quills]

All I do is temperature acclimate them as well and drop them in.

Shilpan, your acclimation method is probably fine. It's the change itself going from one environment to another that can sometimes be the issue.

But it sounds like it's already moving around so that's a good sign. I don't have any nuisance algae in the display but my astrea snails spend their time chowing down on the coraline.

 

[Shilpan]

Ahh I see so it's getting slowly used to my tank.

lol I got plenty of nuisance algae in my new tank hahaha

 

[florida joe]

I personally have never heard of Astrea snails eating healthy coralline algae. I have seen them eating dead or dying sections of coralline though. But that’s just my own observation. One has to remember also if they are turned over somehow they have a very difficult time righting themselves

 

[2quills]

I personally have never heard of Astrea snails eating healthy coralline algae. I have seen them eating dead or dying sections of coralline though. But that’s just my own observation. One has to remember also if they are turned over somehow they have a very difficult time righting themselves

Now you have lol.

Currently there are 5 astrea snails in my refugium and thats all they will go after. I can litteraly see where they've recently been too. They leave a trail of faded and dull color remnants where the day before was vibrant in growth and color.

Sometimes I just sit there and watch em do it. No question in my mind they prefere fresh growth.

 

[florida joe]

would love to see a video of that

 

[2quills]

No vid but I'll give ya a couple of quick pics to prep the palate.

If you look closely there's a Astrea on the bottom eating some right now.

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This is a area where one has been about a week ago and has already begun regenerating. They turn spots of coralline into craters by consuming the juicy stuff in the center leaving a dull, colourless rim behind.

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There's probably not much rocket science involved. In my case it could simply be a lack of hair, film algae and or diatomes in the system so coraline is the next logical choice.

But there are two small baby snails in there now and they're all growing so they must not be suffering.

And yes they are Astrea not to be confused with the Mexican Turbos that I've also had and have seen eat it. The common denominator in both cases may very well have been a lack of preferred food.

 

[2quills]

Same snail 30 minutes later guys. They can't seem to get enough of the stuff. Note the white areas on the bottom where the snail had recently been parked.

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[Shilpan]

Just an update, the snail has started coming out a couple of hours before lights off so maybe it's getting used to it.

I also realized there is a lot of internal rock structure, and since it is dead rock full of decaying material, the snail must be spending time in there having fun.

I think I will add a few more snails in a couple weeks time. Because I have 3 rock piles in my tank. 2 are covered in diatoms and specks of green hair algae. The one the snail lives on is almost white and clean.

 

[lmforbis]

I had never really thought about it but I started watching mine when you brought it up. I have at least 7. I can usually see them on the back glass but they just sit there during the day. At night they are all over. Mine have been in ther for a couple years and have gotten quite large so they must be eating.