snail breeding

[parrotchute]

Question #5005:
If I want my trochus snails to be able to breed in the tank, do I need to shut off the protein skimmer? No sump yet....(which leads me to posting another question in equipment)
2nd invert question: I bought the microhermits from ipsf, and even though it said they were reef safe, I recently read that they can grow bigger and kill my snails!!
I like my snails more than anything else (hey, they have personality!) and want to keep them alive...what should I do?
Thanks,
Alex

 

[Bifferwine]

Do you have any other fish or inverts? If so, 99.999% of the baby snails will be eaten. They are snacks. Unless you have the snails in isolation, predation on them is unavoidable. A few may survive (I've had a few baby snails survive here and there).

I do not keep hermits because hermit crabs are great cleaners, but they are snail killers. As they grow, they have to switch out into bigger shells. You can put empty shells in your tank, and that may prevent a few deaths, but even with empty shells, a lot of hermits will kill snails. If you value your snails, then you need to get rid of the hermits. If you want both, you need to be okay with replacing a handful of snails every so often.

 

[dustin_P74]

also hermits just kill snails for fun, but hermits are some of the best cleaners you can have so for that cleaning ability i have no problem replacing snails every so often

 

[parrotchute]

Yup, got things that'd eat them. I heard trochus snails reproduce and have a decent survival rate.

Yeah, I didn't want hermits either, but the IPSF website sort of misled me into thinking they wouldn't grow big enough to threaten things. I don't want to keep them now, I guess...I'll have to gather them up and bring them to the LFS.
Thanks Biff

 

[dustin_P74]

all snails will occasionally reproduce in captivity, but the trick to it is making sure that the eggs dont become a mid day snack for fish

 

[parrotchute]

Yes...hmmmm...time to build me a snailtarium

 

[Altohombre]

I think that hermits have much more personality and seem like they are doing a heck of a lot more than my snails. Nassarious snails have personality though, but just at feeding time.