Thanks, and a Story re Stomatella Snails (beh.)
1/29/07 Dear Bob, et. al.: <Greetings John, Mich with you
this evening.> First of all, many thanks to all of you for
your fine WWM resources. You have all helped me gain a tremendous
amount of valuable insight into the reef aquarium hobby, at times
calming my fears, at others helping me form new strategies, and
most always helping me to stay out of (too much) trouble.
<Hehe, this is good.> It is a constant learning experience,
and the challenge is greatly alleviated by useful knowledge and
sense. <Glad to hear!> I have a 75g reef tank with about
100 lbs. of live rock and a 3" sand bed. This tank had been
set up for at least a couple of years by the prior owners, but
had been sadly neglected -- inadequate lighting, insufficient
water changes and regular maintenance, etc., and the live rock
and sand were really not very "live" at all. The sand
was absolutely full of detritus. After moving the entire works,
setting things back up, adding a new skimmer (AquaC Remora Pro),
300w of 10k and 70w of 20k MH lighting, some new additional live
rock and sand and 4 months of babying, this microcosm is now
doing extremely well, and has some very good diversity of life...
not all to my own credit, because you and your advice also
deserve some of the credit. Some "Live Sand Activator"
from Coral Dynamics really kick started the sand bed, and a
couple of other live micro-critter inoculations have the now very
active sand bed well on its way to a stable equilibrium. The tank
never did cycle (measurably, at least), and has never registered
any reading for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, or phosphates.
<Awesome!> The tank now houses the 2 yellowtail damsels
which came with the original setup, a black velvet neon damsel
(which was rescued from another marine tank after being attacked
nearly to death by other damsels, and who has doubled in size in
3 months), a lawnmower blenny, and a powder blue tang (which I
had great trepidation about adding, but who is healthy, growing,
and truly thriving). I've gradually been adding corals over
the past couple of months - a couple of Acropora frags, two
Montipora, a Pocillopora, a pumping Xenia, and most recently a
yellow Fiji leather. All are thriving (though the Xenia is rather
finicky), have plenty of space, and I am done adding anything for
the foreseeable future. WWM and Bob's and Anthony's books
have really helped me tremendously. <The website and the books
are an invaluable asset to this hobby. I too would
have been at a total loss without them.> I don't have a
question today, but do have a comment / story to share. <Very
good.> After adding something six or so weeks ago, I began
noticing tiny slug-like creatures which grew quickly to about
1/4" to 3/8" length. Within a couple of weeks there
were hundreds of these animals in the tank, most notably after
dark. They were hard to see on the rock since they were
well-camouflaged, but they moved around very quickly, much more
so than the Cerith, Astrea, and turbo snails. After seeing one of
the larger of these spewing milky stuff one morning (obvious to
me that this was a reproductive event), I earnestly needed to
find out what these things were, fearing a pending plague. After
much searching, I finally determined that they were Stomatella,
and that I did not indeed have a problem after all. Their
population has by now become self-regulating, and there is always
a full range of sizes of these snails in the tank. <Most
excellent! These are a great addition to any saltwater
tank.> Yesterday I took out two MaxiJet 1200 powerheads with
Hydor Flo rotating heads (an absolutely wonderful product for the
money, IMO) to (experimentally, at least for now) replace them
with Hydor Koralia powerheads. (So far I'm very impressed
with these, and the general water movement in the tank is much
improved, though time will tell the tale). Upon removing the
Maxijets, I picked off several Stomatella, putting them back into
the tank. After about 30 minutes (with the Maxijets sitting in
the kitchen sink, rinsed in tap water), I got around to their
complete disassembly and cleaning. I found several more of the
Stomatella inside the powerheads, and was very surprised to find
them still alive. <Yes, pretty hardy creatures.> Assuming
that following what they had just been through they were almost
certainly doomed, I took three of them back to the tank and
dropped them into the water anyway. <Always good to be an
optimist.> Fluid dynamics being as it is, all three floated to
the bottom and landed on their backs. They squirmed around for a
few seconds trying to right themselves (they are really adept at
that when they land on rock), but none were able. Then all three
squirreled their heads around and began picking up grains of
sand, placing them on their "bellies" (feet), and moved
the grains along to the back end of their feet. After doing this
with 4-5 grains of sand, they had gained enough weight
(apparently) to squirm one more time and roll over, after which
they took off on their merry ways. I was pretty amazed -- what a
remarkable behavior this was! Is this a great hobby or what??!!
<What a world!!! Amazing isn't it?!?> Sorry
for the length of this message, and again, thanks so much for all
your insight and assistance. <No apologies
please! Thank you for the kind words and sharing your
delightful story! -Mich> Kind Regards, John
Turbo Snail Issues 6/3/06 I had 3 zebra turbo snails.
After a couple weeks I now have 1. It went to the back of the
tank where I have some algae planted and released black pellet
looking things. <Waste pellets, snail poop.> I don't
know if its relieving its self or what but its all around it in
the sand and on its shell. Hopefully you know what
this is. Thank you for your time. Love the site.
<Chris>
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