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Does anyone know how long the different type of snails live for? There are different answers all over the internet.
Snails
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Depends on the water temp.
I hear in cold water(to cold for your average tank)they can live 8 years I also heard warmer water they can live 2-3 years I think they are such simple creatures that the warmer water speeds there metabalisme and they are in fast foward.
I hear in cold water(to cold for your average tank)they can live 8 years I also heard warmer water they can live 2-3 years I think they are such simple creatures that the warmer water speeds there metabalisme and they are in fast foward.
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Some around this hemisphere can live over 40 years. That's the common nassarius. In tanks I've heard 3 years is a long time.
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I've had all my big snails for almost a year, and one by one there dropping. I figured it was time to get more.
I was wondering the same thing. My snails had babies, and now I have about 40 baby snails I've been watching since the time they were about the size of pin heads. Most are lager than peas now, and a few are about the size of peanut M&Ms. My wife and I find it ver interesting that they even though they came from the same clutch of eggs, they all have different patterns on thier shells. Some have stripes, some are more uniform. Between those, and the 30+ tiny white-gray starfish I have in there, they keep the tank pretty clean.
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The tiny micro stars eat coral........ FYI. They especialy like SPS. They tend not to attack it but if the piece is growing rapidly or gets torn (IE, fragged) they are all over the chemicals being released and will pick it clean.
That's dissappointing to know. I paid $1 each for three of the little guys about two years ago. After reading your post, I went to do a fresh count, and 30+ was a VERY low estimate. It's probably closer to 80 than 30. I've seen them around my mushrooms and polyps, but I've neever seen them do anything damaging. They seem to just eat algea, especially hair algea which I used to have a problem with till I quit using tap water. They would eat off the base of the algea, kind of like a weedwhacker, and leave the rock clean. I just to joke about them being "weedwhacker starfish"
Should I be pulling them out?
Should I be pulling them out?
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I think you should be able to leave the micro stars in your tank unless you witness them eating the corals. Among the micro stars, only one type has been shown to eat corals (Asterinas) and even then it is fairly rare.Glendor said:
Does your starfish look like this?
If it does, then it is an Amphiuridae mini brittlestar and they are reef safe (do not eat corals) and are very beneficial sandbed and rock cleaners (as you have witnessed). Now you just need trademark the name, say they are rare and make millions on eBay
Brian
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This is because there are many different species of snails in the hobby and noted on the internet.usmc121581 said:
Some species of snails live very short lives, but some have been recorded to live for over 100 years.
Many of the snails in the aquarium hobby have natural life spans in the wild of 5-40 years. However, they are typically cold or temperate water snails and their lifespan is greatly reduced in reef tank temperatures, they slowly "cook" to death.
If at all possible, try to find warm water snails to purchase and they should live much longer lives in your tanks.
Brian
BTW...do you have picures of your snails that reproduced?
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