What do You Do When You Run Out Of Algae?

[ReefRian]

I have about 7 Turbo snails and around 7 strombus snails. What do I do when it looks like they have eaten almost all the algae from my tank? The only algae I see is on the sand and they don't seem to be interested in it. What do you do when this happens? Should I purchase some kind of food for the snails, and if so what kind and brand do you recommend?

Rian

 

[Tony Quinn]

Snails are detrivores and will eat the remnants of food etc from the feeding of your fish, I wouldn't worry too much about not seeing algae, it will be there. The algae you mention in the sand may be cyano (if it's brownish/red) thats why they are not eating that. Do you have live rock?, also your lighting could affect your algae levels.

 

[Anemone]

Sorry, but saying snails are detrivores is incorrect. Some snails may be detrivores, but most are either carnivores or herbivores. "Turbo" snails, and probably the strombus (depending upon the species), will not survive on "detritus." They may be consuming algal films that are not readily visible (especially the strombus), but a lack of visible algae will often result in a die-off of number of snails.

What can you do? Well, you can increase your fish feedings, providing more nutrients for algal growth. You can increase your lighting - again increasing algal growth. You can buy some new rock, and rotate out some old rock (rotating the old rock into another well-lit aquarium free of snails to allow it to grow some algae is also an option).

Finally, you can also try feeding the turbos dried sheet algae. I have a large turbo that regularly comes onto the glass at night to eat the Seaweed Selects that I put in an algae clip for my tang.

FWIW,
Kevin

 

[ReefRian]

Thanks for the help and suggestions. I'll try the seaweed clip. My tank is just a little over a month old so I don't have any fish in it yet to be feeding, but I do feed a little food every few days to my hermit crab. I'm working on getting my qtank up and running to start getting fish.

Rian

 

[danmhippo]

The more you feed, more effort you have to do to export them out of the system. I would return some of the snails back to the LFS.

 

[Tony Quinn]

Kevin, my answer may have been confusing, I have two species of snails that are detrivores as they were initially kept in a bare tank and lived off the waste and excess food given to the fish. Algae was minimal in this tank due to very low lighting for the fish concerned. The other point I made was that, as you confirmed, alot of the algae is not that visible yet the snails live comfortably off it. Sorry for the poor wording.

 

[Anonymous]

The strombus will not last long in a tank without algae, diatoms, or cyano. I would return them first(esp since you have7!!!!!).

 

[SPC]

Posted by Tony:

Kevin, my answer may have been confusing, I have two species of snails that are detrivores

-And which two species might this be Tony?
Steve

 

[Tony Quinn]

Steve, the two species in question were species of whelks (I think you call them Welks in the States). They were both carnivorous but were quite content living as scavengers off decaying matter, as many snails do as even my turbo snails have. I have experienced this with Apple snails in a freshwater environment as well.