CUC life span?

At the risk of sounding totally ridiculous? How long do snails and crabs ect>>> live??? My tank seems soooo dirty and I just purchased a CUC back in July of last year?

 

In my old 75g, there is still a dwarf red leged hermit that hitchhiked on a piece of macro algae when I started the tank 9 1/2 years ago. They are pretty long lived actually. Snails, not so long IME. Usually they die off as the algae dies off. Hard to say, but I'd guess snails tend to last anywhere from a month, to a few years. Maybe a bit more, but not like hermit crabs. Moslty though we add way more than the tank can sustain once algae issues are under control and they starve.

 

Hmmm.... thank you for that tidbit of info

 

I was wondering that as much of my crew has faded away.

 

+1 on above
Hermits seem to last longer for me
snails I can lose a couple within a month of purchase
and yet others, 2 years later are still with me ( massive now)

Steve

 

Snails also fall victim to predation. Quite a few hitchhikers will make meals out of them.

 

My snails maybe average 6-9 months. I have much better luck with the crabs. I will be ordering some more snails now, and I ordered them last I think in may

 

I have a 10 year old bumble bee snail. My astraeas and nerite are over 5.


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I would be very curious to see where John Maloney weighs in on this one. . . .

 

Longest lasting snails that won't bulldoze your frags and knock them over..is a trochus snail, and the bonus is that they can right themselves if they fall, something that most snails can't do. The nice thing about trochus is they will breed in your tank, and if you keep your tank in decent shape, you can harvest them, and sell them to your LFS. I personally only buy trochus snails, but if they aren't available, get small turbos, and when they get big, turn them back in for smaller ones.