snail question

[philburt]

I have a dozen or more blue leg hermits in 90 gal tank and any time I add Astrea Snails the hermits take them over.here the question I am starting to get a algae problem do to new lights and need to get some kind of algae eaters (for glass) that crabs will not bother. Nassarius or Cerith ?? and what is the rule of thumb for having mh on thanks

 

[essop3]

Do you have extra shells for the crabs? They like to try on new homes a lot. They will take them from any snail if they don''t have them available.

 

[msez2u]

I was going through snails at a rate of 2 a night and couldnt figure out for the longest time what was going on. Well one night we stayed up and watched the tank. My hermits were knocking my snails off the rocks and then pulling them out of the shells and eating them.

...The next morning I went to someone I trust very much whos been in this field for more then 20 years and she told me once they get a taste for the snails they will kill them all off. I had all shapes and sizes of shells in my tank and it didnt matter they still were murdering my snails. So you might want to watch and see which one is getting the snails and get him out of there. Once I took the 2 hellians out of there I never lost another snail. They didnt want the shell they wanted to snail......Could this be whats happening to your snails as well????

 

[philburt]

that might just be the case there are many shells sitting on bottom with no Tenants. I will purchase some more and watch for a few nights , hope the ones still left have turbo

 

[skipperdz]

Nassarius arent algae eaters. emerald crabs do wonders on green hair algae...or a lawnmower blenny will eat agae...sea hares too. you can always cut back your lights an hr or two. i had my lights on 8hrs and it was too much im down to 5 now