snails,snail, and more snails

Dear hobby:

It sounds like you have assembled a very nice assortment of snails to serve as the cleanup crew for your new seahorse tank. If they are doing a very efficient job of cleaning microalgae from the aquarium glass and scouring your live rock clean, and you want to provide the snails with some supplemental source of food to assure they are all getting enough to eat, that’s probably a good idea.

The easiest way to accomplish that is to obtain a little Nori (dried seaweed) for the herbivorous snails. Tear off a piece of the Nori about 2-3 inches square and place that on the bottom of the tank, using a small piece of coral rubble or a bit of live rock to hold it in place so that it doesn’t get blown around by the filters. It will rehydrate when it’s placed in the aquarium and provide a source of macroalgae for the herbivorous snails to dine on when they cannot scrape up enough microalgae from the class or live rock. You can just replenish the Nori as needed after the snails have eaten it all.

You can buy Japanese Nori at health food stores and some grocery stores, or you can obtain Tang Heaven Nori from Indo-Pacific Sea Farms at the following URL. The Tang Heaven Nori consists of green Ulva macroalgae that has been dried in the sun, and herbivorous snails will enjoy grazing on it at their leisure:

http://www.ipsf.com/tangheaven.html

Once you get your first seahorses and you are feeding them frozen Mysis regularly, the fire shrimp (Lysmata debelius) will not need any supplemental feeding at all. The fire shrimp will happily help himself to his share of the frozen Mysis when you are feeding the seahorses.

Until then, just provide the fire shrimp with a small portion of frozen Mysis two or three times a week and he should be happy. Any of the frozen Mysis the fire shrimp does not promptly finish off will provide fodder for the non-herbivorous snails in your cleanup crew, such as the nassarius snails that like meatier leftovers.

Best of luck maintaining a healthy, diverse cleanup crew for your seahorse tank, hobby!

Happy Trails!
Pete Giwojna

Dear hobby:

Yes, if you have algae wafers that sink, you can try them for feeding your herbivorous snails. Go ahead and place one or two of the wafers on the bottom of the tank and anchor them so they won’t be shifted around by the water currents. If the herbivorous snails are attracted to the wafers and begin feeding on them, then you’re in business. In that case, just replace the wafers periodically when the hungry snails have devoured all of them. Don’t add too many of the wafers at one time and observe the snails to see if they are actually eating them. If the snails don’t appear to be attracted to the algae wafers, offering them some of the Nori will be your best bet for feeding herbivorous snails.

If you have a lot of snails in a newly established aquarium without much algae to support them, it’s possible that some of them may not be getting enough to eat, depending on their dietary preferences. The strictly herbivorous snails would suffer the most without a supply of algae to graze upon; omnivorous snails and detritivores will have better luck scavenging in a tank that lacks much algae.

The algae wafers won’t suffice for the nassarius snails that are more carnivorous and prefer meatier leftovers. Provide the nassarius snails with a bit of frozen Mysis two or three times a week and they should be happy. (Or a piece of the uncooked cocktail shrimp that you used to cycle your aquarium should also attract nassarius snails.)

Yes, as long as your water quality remains good and there are no ammonia or nitrite spikes, it’s perfectly fine to let the other snails scavenge any of the turbos that may have died, as long as there is only a small number of dead or dying snails.

Once you get your first seahorses, you will no longer need to provide supplemental feedings for the nassarius snails, since they will help themselves to the frozen Mysis that you provide for your ponies.

Best of luck providing for your fine assortment of snails well your aquarium matures, hobby.

Respectfully,
Pete Giwojna