Getting Back Into Marine

[KittyKat]

I have since started looking for crabs and have only had any luck finding C. tircolor, out of the two, so I think I will be going for those again. I have also enquired with the seller, if they have T. fluctuosus too.. but am still waiting on a reply.

Turbo fluctuosus are to be avoided they are from Mexico and are sub-tropical animals and dont often live long at reef temperatures. Go for Turbo snails from the Indo-pacific

I did not go for these in the end, but can you please elaborate, especially on the points Donya asked about? Which species would you recommend from the Indo-pacific region, out of those which are suitable for an aquarium this size?

Mexican Turbo snails are subtropical animals and so do not survive long when placed in a tank at noramal reef temperatures. You want those from the Indo-Pacific.

Are you referring to Turbo fluctuosus, and what exactly does not surviving long mean in this context (since whenever I hear this with snails it usually refers to a few months)? T. fluctuosus is what I am familiar with being called a "Mexican Turbo." They have a largely tropical range through places like Baja California, although they have a fairly wide temperature tolerance in the aquarium (typical of many animals in tidal ranges). Regarding the time, of the the ones I have now, many have been with me about three years so far, were purchased at a pretty good size, and they're still ticking. It has seemed to me that most of these snails that die after such short periods of time probably do so because of starvation and/or being subjected to poor water quality. Most people don't give them anywhere even close to the amount of food they will consume daily in environments where they can eat whenever hungry.

 

[KittyKat]

Two crabs and two snails later, the tank is looking great. I am definitely happy that I didn't go for any more animals than that because there is now not a spot of undesirable algae or anything else, for that matter, left anywhere, so I'm going to have to start "target" feeding them soon.

 

[lljdma06]

Do you have any pictures. Yeah, I opted for smallish CUCs too. It's worked great in my picos, but I ended up adding more to my 36g.