Reef nutrition

Beginner Clean-Up Crew Invertebrates

FeliciaLynn

FeliciaLynn

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This is the information from a handout I made for the New Hobbyist Workshop on 4/12/14.

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Nice write up! The "Turbo" are often called "Mexican Turbos" or "Mexican Turban" snails.

I believe "Turbo" comes from "Turban" and it was some inside joke to call snails turbos.

One important note about Mexican Turbos is that they eat that horrible pink candy floss/pink fuzz algae. And they are amazing at it.

V
 
Why aren't bumble bee snails mentioned? I know they're carnivores/scavengers (and I imagined that I could keep them instead of hermit crabs) but is there another reason that they're not very popular?
 
Ahruk said:
Why aren't bumble bee snails mentioned? I know they're carnivores/scavengers (and I imagined that I could keep them instead of hermit crabs) but is there another reason that they're not very popular?
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Interesting you bring this up. I also observe that they are rarely mentioned. I have a few hermits that I would like to get rid of (tank is too small, they trample on my stuff). Bumble Bee snails sound like nice alternatives.
 
I am pretty sure that bumble bee snails are carnivores. I remember reading an article on them a while ago about how they are "predatory" to other snails and worms unlike nassarius and others who are "scavengers". Bumble Bees will hunt down and kill smaller snails for food before going for any left over dead meats and uneaten foods.
 
Thanks for the info. Felicia. Been thinking of buying a shrimp for my Biocube 14g.
Will these shrimp bother my corals?

FYI folks, I have two Turbo snails from Diablo Corals and they really eat the algae.
They are also surprisingly fast.

David
 
Pancetta said:
Thanks for the info. Felicia. Been thinking of buying a shrimp for my Biocube 14g.
Will these shrimp bother my corals?

FYI folks, I have two Turbo snails from Diablo Corals and they really eat the algae.
They are also surprisingly fast.

David
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The shrimp I listed are all reef safe. They sometimes make corals close up when they crawl over them, but other than that they don't bother anything. Cleaner shrimp are my favorite and I've always had them in my reef tank.
 
Vincerama2 said:
Nice write up! The "Turbo" are often called "Mexican Turbos" or "Mexican Turban" snails.

I believe "Turbo" comes from "Turban" and it was some inside joke to call snails turbos.

One important note about Mexican Turbos is that they eat that horrible pink candy floss/pink fuzz algae. And they are amazing at it.

V
Click to expand...

Indeed, Turbo comes from Turban, but also the ability of Turbos to move faster than most aquarium snails. Its basically a perception issue though as they really don't, they're typically larger so they look like the are moving faster ;)

FeliciaLynn said:
The shrimp I listed are all reef safe. They sometimes make corals close up when they crawl over them, but other than that they don't bother anything. Cleaner shrimp are my favorite and I've always had them in my reef tank.
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No shrimp is truly "coral safe" as all will take food from corals mouths, quite often damaging the coral.
 
Navdeep said:
+1 My next tank is not going to have a shrimp. I've dealt enough (while coral feeding) with the cleaner I have!!
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I've got some alage wafers I give mine before feeding the lps, and when I feed the nems I just give them each a piece of whatever I'm giving them nem, seems to work pretty well.
 
Navdeep said:
+1 My next tank is not going to have a shrimp. I've dealt enough (while coral feeding) with the cleaner I have!!
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Try a fire shrimp. Mine eats from my hands, and usually stays in his cave. Occasionally, a crab or snail will take up temp residence in fire shrimp lair, in which case shrimps will be out and about, but he'll only stay on his rock, his side of the tank.

Thankfully for me, I don't have any LPS on that side of the tank, as shrimpy will never make it to that side of the tank anyway because of the flow. He tried once on accident when I first introduced him, got stuck in the undertow from MP10 and couldn't get out. I had to save him.

He must have learned his lesson and never ventures from his rock, so I never had issue with ripping food from corals, however; when feeding my chalice, I have to sit there and police for hermit crabs. Chalice take a while to swallow, and so far only once I had to shooe a blue leg away.
 
Justin, you're probably one of those lucky guys having a shrimp with some manners :p

Typically when I target feed, I turn off the powerheads, so no flow stops my cleaner, and he goes end-end snatching food out of every coral!
 
feed the shrimp first and he will leave the others alone, that way he won't have to steal food if has food already. Normall when the shrimp has food it will take it and hide. Then you can feed the rest of your tank.
 
im running a 28G nanocube. i have 1 Trochus snails left (4 originally, peppermint shrimp wasnt being fed enough and went after the snails) and 4 hermits. I have 2 empty hermit shells and 3 snail shells but today one of my hermits was going after another hermit. I increased my feeding schedule 48hrs ago (and bumped it up last week with the shrimp fiasco).

My detritus bloom has subsided and im worried these crabs 1) have grown from eating a massive amount of algae in 8 days and need new shells and 2) are getting hungry based on the appetite they've worked up.

thoughts?
how can i acquire larger shells if they aren't taking to the idea of dead snail shells?
 
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