schiller
New Member
Hello everyone. I keep running into problem after problem with a new setup, and I was hoping that I could get some advice. I have had a 55gal column running for a couple months now, and decided to add some snails to my cleanup crew. I added 10 Astraea turbo, 10 cerith, 10 nassarius, 4 spiny star astraea, and 4 bumble bee. 24 hours later, my glass had trails of tiny white snails crawling up the glass. Fearing a pest, I promptly removed them (maybe around 30?) and began research for identification. A few days later now there are maybe 50? I am in a panic, and I can't seem to find any useful ID. I would post a picture, but it would be useless because they are so tiny. The picture just looks like a white dot if you can even see that. They form a line coming out of the sand bed (almost like a trail of ants, though they are definitely snails).
They are bright white, no evidence of any other coloration/stripe/etc. They are about the size of a grain of sand. Maybe 1/8 of a grain of rice, if even. It is a snail with a hard shell coming to a point (not a round circle). It is so small that I can't use the identifying guides that mention the direction of shell striations or anything like that. I find the new trails in the morning, but I have not seen a "tank full" of nocturnal snails when I check on it during the night, and they stay put during the day (meaning they don't rush back into hiding when I turn the lights on). I am scared that they might be baby pyramidellid snails, but they are on the glass. I have not noticed anything on the snails or fish, and I don't have any clams. This is what worried me because my goal would be for coral and a clam.
I have eliminated the possibility of a tube worm, filter feeder, spirobid worm, collonista snail. They are definitely not any kind of pod or other "bug". They aren't eggs, there is no darker center spot.
I try to introduce new things without adding any of the bag water from the stores, though I know I do get a minimal amount of that. I am assuming that it came with my live rock and were chased out by the new arrivals? I am sure I would have noticed hundreds of sandy specks when adding the snails, and I assume they couldn't have laid and hatched eggs - It hasn't been but a 3-4 days since their arrival and I have noticed no "egg patterns" on the glass.
Am I safe from them being "bad snails" because they are hanging on to the glass?? Why the sudden rush of these guys? I added half the amount of snails as was recommended from most of the sites I read, but was this actually too many and it is flushing these guys out? Should I remove some of these that I bought? Pleeaaasseeee tell me I am not infested with a predatory snail and have to take down the tank.... I have been removing them manually as I see them.
They are bright white, no evidence of any other coloration/stripe/etc. They are about the size of a grain of sand. Maybe 1/8 of a grain of rice, if even. It is a snail with a hard shell coming to a point (not a round circle). It is so small that I can't use the identifying guides that mention the direction of shell striations or anything like that. I find the new trails in the morning, but I have not seen a "tank full" of nocturnal snails when I check on it during the night, and they stay put during the day (meaning they don't rush back into hiding when I turn the lights on). I am scared that they might be baby pyramidellid snails, but they are on the glass. I have not noticed anything on the snails or fish, and I don't have any clams. This is what worried me because my goal would be for coral and a clam.
I have eliminated the possibility of a tube worm, filter feeder, spirobid worm, collonista snail. They are definitely not any kind of pod or other "bug". They aren't eggs, there is no darker center spot.
I try to introduce new things without adding any of the bag water from the stores, though I know I do get a minimal amount of that. I am assuming that it came with my live rock and were chased out by the new arrivals? I am sure I would have noticed hundreds of sandy specks when adding the snails, and I assume they couldn't have laid and hatched eggs - It hasn't been but a 3-4 days since their arrival and I have noticed no "egg patterns" on the glass.
Am I safe from them being "bad snails" because they are hanging on to the glass?? Why the sudden rush of these guys? I added half the amount of snails as was recommended from most of the sites I read, but was this actually too many and it is flushing these guys out? Should I remove some of these that I bought? Pleeaaasseeee tell me I am not infested with a predatory snail and have to take down the tank.... I have been removing them manually as I see them.
