collonista snails

I really dont get some people....

Been doing so recreational reading and came across several threads of people hating on these awesome little buggers. one guy was even taking pride in how he "threw each and everyone he could get his hands on" out....what a noob!

Granted they can be very numerous and can kill other snails as they out compete them for food, but heck they are the back bone of my clean up crew!

furthermore iv also read how people are sick of seeing them all over the place and how many they have.... perhaps i dont have the same populations as they do (though i can assure you have colossal amount) but i only ever seem to see them at night. during the day they hide under my corals, in the corners of my tank, or i dont know where else and come out at night like little ghosts munching and grazing away on my rocks.

only "issue" I have with them is that they sometimes slither into my mechanical filter (as im cleaning the filter and bell) and their shells touch the impeller making an annoying grinding sound, a problem thats fixed in under two minuets.

anyway thoughts and experiences folks?

P.s just to make sure this is what i consider a colonista snail...

also even if i have an array of them it seems both my astrea snail and my trocus snail find ample food to survive....

 

Those look quite large for collonistas. Everything I find says they grow to 1/4" max height and diameter.

 

hmmm.....pagojoe, care to share your wisdom?

 

Looks more like Turbo/Trochoidea to me.

 

they never get larger than the biggest one in my hand, i have tons of them. i thought they were baby turbos as well at first but they never reached the large size their parents once were

 

I loved my colonista snails in my previous tank and wish I could infest this one. That said, those snails look big to me too.

 

Collonista costulosa?

for the record the snails went right back in the tank after the photo

 

Hey Swiss,

Yours probably aren't C. costulosa, since that species only reaches about 4 mm. There actually are a couple of species in the Colloniidae (or Colloniinae, depending how you look at it) that get comparatively large, maybe as large as your snails, but the vast majority average from 3 to 4 mm. I think yours are true Turbo species, but it would be easier to verify if I could see a clear pic of the operculum.

Cheers,



Don

 

Ill get on it as soon as i can, thx for the feed back

 

pictures are a little crappy but hopefully you can work with them, otherwise let me know and ill try and take clearer shots with my actual camera and not my phone