How Does A Snail Grow?

[slowleak]

just curious, does there shell grow larger with age or what? mine are in a super buffet eating all the brown algea i have. im sure this will help there growth, but do i need new shells for them or do they grow there own?

 

[VictorMeldrew]

You do not need to supply bigger shells for snails, it just grows with them

 

[slowleak]

thats good to know. these should have lots of growing ahead of them. theyve been eating for about 6 hours now and have only cleared about 1 square inch of algea. i think they need some back up!!

 

[VictorMeldrew]

Turbo and Astrial (sp) snails are fantastic workers, i need loads more aswell for my tank but everytime I go to buy some I come home with something else instead

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Lol Victor me too. No idea how many snails I have at the moment, some of the big ones have died/been killed by hermits but I also have at least two batches of baby ones. Really need more though, I didn't have enough for the 30g and definitely dont have enough for the 100.

Cerith snails are very good too.

 

[youngfisher]

Do snails affect the bioload in marine?
So do they add to stocking?
Or can you just have as many as you want.

YF

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Dont really effect the bio load. However if you have too many there wont be enough food for them and they will die off until they reach a number where the available food will support them.

Thats why (IMO) its best to build your CUC up slowly. If you find your CUC is constantly eating but you still have algae around then get a couple more until you get a nice balance (and check your phosphate and nitrate levels too if you have really bad algae, if you have high phosphates and nitrates it doesnt matter how many snails you have, the algae will still win).