Reef Discussion

[marineclass]

I had my stromb snail on a sand bed and he moved around a lot. He is now in the new tank and on a coral rubble and digs himself into the bed. I lost him the other day and couldnt find him for a few days. Eventually i found him completly under the coral rubble - eye pocking out to see who was disturbing him. He now seems to enjoy just sitting in one place , moving once every couple of days -

i first thought maybe he cant move on this coral rubble, however my other stromb (which is less than half the size) moves around perfectly.

Does he sound like he is sick?

 

[MTG]

Stombs are rather nocturnal. usualy through the day you wont see them they will have burried themselves under liverock and substrate. its at the night time that they realy become active. try have a look at the tank at 3am and see what its doing. you shouldnt have any problems with it tho i never see mine and i have 3!

 

[Dr. Schell]

Strombs are great little critters, great at eating diatoms that form on the bottom of the tank as a brown coating. I have found that all of my strombs all behave very differently. Some bury through the day, some are active - each has its own personality. In terms of locomotion, they move by "hopping" along the substrate. You mention that your smaller stomb had not issue moving around. It may be that as the larger is heavier, it cannot sucessfully "hop" to a new position. Have you added any new fish/invertebrates to the tank. Burying behaviour is a predator-avoitance tactic.
These are questions to ponder :rolleyes:

 

[marineclass]

He can move around, slowly but he can. New fish - nope - he was moving well with all these fish.
I was wondering if he was active at night but he will stay in the same spot for days - then ill pull him out and he will move 15 cm or so and then burry in again for another couple of days - very odd. When i pull back the coral rubble around him, he is working away under it - sucking and cleaning the rocks - so hes still working, just in one spot! haha

 

[Talmier]

I have 2 mine where active during the day when I first put them in.

Now they just dig themselves a hole during the day and just lay there.

When the lights go off though they start moving around and every morning they are in a different position

 

[rosechaser]

Just got two today they looking great, only small about 2.5cm.

Can they be fed anything, or can I put anything in the tank as setup is new so not sure how much there is for them to eat....plenty of algae but I'm sure they'll get through that quickly.

 

[marineclass]

I've found mine eating a flake of fish food that landed right next to them so you could throw a couple of flakes around them if your worried - I've never target fed them - they find food

 

[Dr. Schell]

they will eat algae pellets (the ones you feed to bristle-nosed catfich) or if you weigh-down a pieve of Nori, they will feed on that also.

 

[Dynamic]

How big do they grow?

 

[Dr. Schell]

Strombus luhuanus the species commonly sold in Australia growns to about 8cm long. THey have seperate sexes, so the snail is wither male or female.

 

[Dynamic]

Sweet. Thanks :)

 

[Agent M]

How do you tell the difference between males and females? And do they breed in captivity?

 

[MagicJ]

How do you tell the difference between males and females? And do they breed in captivity?

Are we still talking about strombs?? ;)

 

[Dr. Schell]

yes, they do breed in captivity, however, to my knowledge, the larvae have not been sucessfully raised through metamorphosis (the larvae are pelagic and must metamorphose prior to settling to the bottom). The sex the strombs, look at the anterior portion of the foot (on the front right hand side). If there is a distinct grove that runs to the front of the foot, you have a female, if not, then you have a male. During oviposition, the eggs are transported down this grove and place into the substrate. Eggs are often laid during the act of fertilisation (the male mounts the female from behind, and pins her down by attaching the front of his foot to her shell).

 

[Matman]

I have 4 in my tank,they were hiding all the time until I found out my wrasse was grabbing them by the eye and pulling them out of the sand.So once I got rid of him they never hide even through the day.

Matman

 

[ifishnow]

Mine also was busy all the time when I first got it...Now only starts to get active before the lights turn out...I used to panic about him but not now. At least he isn't making a nuisance of himself like he was when he was getting around during the day also....

 

[VaultBoy]

mine never stops workign.... when i first put it in i never saw it again for a couple of weeks... now it pops up every couple of days zooming around the tank.

I have also found at least 2 tiny baby strombs in my tank which is awesome! I like freebies!

 

[Dr. Schell]

I have 1 male and 2 females strombs in my large tank. Male is constantly chasing the females around to mate with them. The females are constantly laying eggs, when, when they hatch, become coral/fish food. They are active day and night, as my wrasses (6 lines) do not bother them

 

[Agent M]

All good info to know everyone - they sound great. I don't remember where I heard this but I read somewhere that it can be difficult to sustain them long term?

.... ok found the link to this website, was reading it the other day:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-07/rs/index.php

So should a pair be ok in a standard 4 foot tank or is it not big enough for them long term? I have lots of inverts in my tank - fan worms, vermetid snails, turbos, sponges, limpets, chitons, stomatella, brittle stars - mainly due to there being food available for them and minimal predation.

 

[gcebiker]

Ah good to know that i probably have a male and a female, in my new tank they are laying about once a week.

I was hoping some might survive but at the very least the corals are getting a snack.