snail question

just noticed in alot of threads u guys reakon 50 snails roughly in a tank of about 75 gals

im curius as to the size of the snails cos the 1's i get are about 1 inch tall and about 1 inch across the base.....

is that about what u guys have or do yas get smaller snails than that?

i cant imagine 50 snails that big in my tank thered be no room for fish

im not sure of the species of snail i have so i took some pics they seem to be a comon snail in australia they do a pretty good job to





thnx

 

That all depends on the kinds of snails you decide to keep. For instance, some species of turbo snails reach a nice size of 4-5" in diameter. Others, like nerites, are about .5" in size. All depends what kind of snails you are referring too. Most systems will have a combo of several different species, and that will factor into how many snails you can/should keep.

and the pics suggest you have trochus snails, which are moderately large. great for controlling nasty hair algae .

 

thnx for the ID reef playground

im curious to know what snail most people use i mean as a general purpose snail and what size it is

thnx

 

i have 3 astreas eating algae(rocks glass etc.) and Im gonna add 4 nassarius snails for sand bed cleaning, I had 4 astreas but one died of unknow causes, started falling off the glass alot so I knew he wasnt doing so good.

 

the trochus a good general cleaning snails. for your 75g, I would keep about 3 dozen or so trochus, then maybe a dozen or so cerinths, maybe one to three turbos, about two dozen hermit crabs, and maybe a sea hare or a tuxedo urchin. And that would be your algae eating team. And having that many cleaners is not going to overwhelm your tank, you wont usually even notice most of them unless you are looking for them.

 

I also have a ton of snails in my 75 gallon. As you can see in my signature VVVV all together I got about 30-40 nassarius and 15-20 turbos... but I'm actually thinking about getting more. And like reef said, you will barely ever notice them unless your are actually looking hard for them.

 

heres an interesting site to poke around in, you can bookmark it for later on, alot of ID info
Animal Library: Invertebrates: Molluscs: Chitons / Abalone / Snails

 

I have six stomatella's (number seems to begrowing) a bumble bee snail and some green one. I dont have a shred of algae in my tank. even on the back glass!
All of these were freebies courtesy of LR