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Posts Tagged ‘Snails’

Mexican Zebra Stripe Turbo Snail (Turbo sp.)

Icon Written by Geoff on January 18, 2012 – 5:42 pm



Mexican Zebra Stripe Turbo Snail – Turbo sp.

  • Date Added: 01/18/2012
  • Quantity: 1
  • Status: Active
  • Purchased at: FAOIS
  • Cost: $2.00
  • Description: The Zebra Turbo Snail, often found off the coast of Asia and is a great variation from the typical Mexican Turbo Snail. Herbivore, eats mainly hair algae and other green algae. The Zebra Turbo are about 2 to 3 times larger and do about 5 times as much work as the Atlantic Turbo Astrea Snail.
  • Color: Dark black shell striped in waves of tan
  • Diet: Herbivore, eats mainly hair algae and other green algae. When algae is in low supply, green seaweed sheets, blanched spinach, or lettuce and vegetable-based tablet foods can be supplemented to help ensure balanced nutrition.
  • Tips: Proper calcium levels must be maintained. It is sensitive to high levels of copper-based medications and will not tolerate high nitrate levels.

    Like other snails, it should be acclimated to new aquariums using the drip acclimation method.

    ATTENTION: These snails can get large and many times knock over unsecured corals and rock.

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Banded Trochus Snails (Trochus sp)

Icon Written by Geoff on November 26, 2009 – 4:05 pm


Trochus sp
Banded Trochus Snails – Trochus sp

  • Date Added: 11/25/2009
  • Quantity: 6
  • Status: Inactive 12/01/2012
  • Purchased at: Coral Corral
  • Cost: $2.00/ea
  • Coloration: White/Gray, some with Red Banding
  • Description: Trochus Snails, Trochus sp., are outstanding cleaners that are found on a number of reefs scattered throughout the Indo-Pacific region. The radula, or tongue, of the snail has a rasp like texture. When pulled across a surface, this rasp pulls the algae loose for a quick snack. They move very slowly but leave nothing behind, eating filamentous algae, slime algae, green algae, diatoms, and cyanbacteria. Add to this the fact that they often are able to right themselves if they fall on their backs. Pyramid shaped similar to an Astrea snail, they get about the size of a quarter when full grown, and are a perfect aquarium snail since they come from warmer waters. Extremely hardy, as long as water quality remains good they have a very long life. Many live from 5 to 7 years. No tank should be without some of these. Recommend 1 per 5 gallons.
  • Notes: The shell of this animal is constantly growing. The fleshy mantle deposits the calcium based construction material on a continual basis. Maintaining proper calcium levels of 350 to 450 ppm will assist the growth of this animal. If algae becomes unavailable in the aquarium, supplement this animals diet with dried seaweed.

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Observations

Icon Written by Geoff on June 14, 2009 – 12:45 pm

I am seeing good coral growth and coloring and attribute to the ZEOvit system. Using my Red Planet Acro as baseline which has its red color and green base back. The ORA Roscoe’s Blue Acro has nice blue base color back with nice green polyp coloring and growth. I did lose my Orange Hammer LPS coral which was my favorite coral. I believe I damaged it when I accidently bumped it with another coral which cause it to recede and have STN. My Frogspawn and Torch LPS corals are growing like crazy.

I am still having issues with nutrients (35.2 ppm Nitrates and 0.03 ppm Phosphates) but only one full month into using the ZEOvit rocks. I need to be patient with protocol. I changed the ZEOvit rocks in the reactor and will proceed with the ZEOvit protocol I have for my tank.

I am seeing green hair algae or cyno starting to take hold in more areas of tank with the maintained nutrient levels. I am looking into using AlgaeFix Marine as I am reading good things about it over at Reef Central.

I am seeing my Alkalinity needing to be dosed 10 to 20 ml daily to maintain the proper level even with dosing Kalkwasser as part of top off. Both calcium and magnesium are inline. Will need to continue to closely monitor to determine if change in tank. I did verify with a newer test kit to eliminate the test kit as the issue.

For some reason I started losing my Turbo Snail, Florida Turbo (Astraea tecta) about two weeks ago. Out of the 18 I had, I am down to eight. I am not sure why unless the ULNS has impact on them with not enough food for them to survive.