Odd snails

[tricksterpup]

Well, Recently I tore down my 55 gallon brackish tank to turn into a 55 reef. The other day, I cleaned out the tank and rinsed all the sand that was in it. AFter I finished, I added more sand to give this tank a deep sand bed, 4-5 inches.
Ok, here is the main reason for this post. In the previous tank, I kept Maylasian Trumpet snails in the brackish water. I thought they all perished due to not being in a running tank for a few weeks and going through a rinse of HOT water. Well, on Wednesday, I added the salt water, with a SG of 1.024. I noticed that some of the snails survived (atleast 40) but would not last the few days they were in the water. But now its sunday night and they are doing well, (as well can be in an uncycled tank). Is it possible that these guys can be added to the clean up crew for other tanks if they survive? I think I will try this tank as a experiment and see what happens. Needless to say, they would be a cheap snail to add to a reef or Fish only setup.

jim

[capman]

Wow...this is cool.

A lot of people complain about these snails (and about freshwater snails in general), and indeed, they can be a problem if you have them in a tank where you are trying to breed fish, but I've always rather liked them. My thinking is that you have them reproducing in excess numbers in a tank, the tank must surely have been fed a large enough amount to have excess food lying around...in which case it was probably good the snails were there.

They are probably the closest thing in freshwater to the various live sand scavengers we have in reef tanks. And I agree, if they can suvive well in saltwater, they would be a cheap alternative to (or complement to) animals like Nassarius.

By the way, if you have some to spare, I'd love to introduce these to some of my freshwater tanks.

Bill

[capman]

By the way...what was the specific gravity of your brackish tank? I had recently been planning a brackish tank and had been lamenting the lack of effective, readily available scavengers for such tanks. But perhpas these snails are the answer!

[tricksterpup]

Bill,
No problem, I can give you atleast a dozen or more from my various tanks. I do not mind passing these guys on, I got them free from various petsmarts. All you need to do is ask for them and they are nice enough to give them to you.
I have never complained about having snails, I know the best way to control them is to control the amount of food going into the tank, less food, less snails. But I do enjoy having a variety of inverts in my freshwater tank, snails and shrimps.

As for brackish settings, I tend to have my tanks around 1.005 or lower. I know they can be higher around 1.010 - 1.020.
A great website for Brackish tanks is Badman's tropicalfish .


As for other inverts, i hear you can acclimate shrimp for a brackish tank.

jim

[capman]

What kind of shrimp?

[tricksterpup]

I think glass shrimp will work.