Flame Hawk Taking Out Snails

ruegaroo · Oct 6, 2020

Last night I found one of my trochus overturned and not moving. I pulled it from the tank and noticed a bite out of it. This morning I noticed an empty nassarius shell and an empty cerith shell. I think one of my flame hawks has gone rogue. I'm going to keep an eye on the situation and see if more snails are lost but I was also wondering if anybody has any ideas of a long term solution to add to the cleanup crew, other than inverts.

For context, I recently noticed my nutrients bottom out and dinos started to pop up. I started to feed heavy but this led to my current issue with green hair algae all over the tank. Would a blenny be a good substitute for snails in terms of algae control? I had a small combtooth blenny last year but it started munching on corals so I'd like to avoid that again. Not sure if other blennies are hit or miss.

BighohoReef · Oct 6, 2020

Blenny can only pack away so much algae, a CuC is still your best bet. It's not unheard of for a flame hawk to have a taste for snails but if you are feeding enough then it shouldn't be an issue. You could add hermits and emeralds, try some larger turbos... you'll need to make sure all your pieces are glued and secured though.

92Miata · Oct 6, 2020

My lawnmower doesn't touch hair algae. They're mostly film algae eaters.

ruegaroo · Oct 6, 2020

BighohoReef said:
Blenny can only pack away so much algae, a CuC is still your best bet. It's not unheard of for a flame hawk to have a taste for snails but if you are feeding enough then it shouldn't be an issue. You could add hermits and emeralds, try some larger turbos... you'll need to make sure all your pieces are glued and secured though.

I had 2 emeralds in my display and they killed my acans after they quickly decimated my bubble algae. I retired them to the sump. I like the idea of larger turbos. I might give that a try.

User1 · Oct 6, 2020

ruegaroo said:
Last night I found one of my trochus overturned and not moving. I pulled it from the tank and noticed a bite out of it. This morning I noticed an empty nassarius shell and an empty cerith shell. I think one of my flame hawks has gone rogue. I'm going to keep an eye on the situation and see if more snails are lost but I was also wondering if anybody has any ideas of a long term solution to add to the cleanup crew, other than inverts.

For context, I recently noticed my nutrients bottom out and dinos started to pop up. I started to feed heavy but this led to my current issue with green hair algae all over the tank. Would a blenny be a good substitute for snails in terms of algae control? I had a small combtooth blenny last year but it started munching on corals so I'd like to avoid that again. Not sure if other blennies are hit or miss.

Not gone rogue. It isn't unheard of for flame hawks going after snails or other inverts. Some will say it isn't their main staple or that their mouths are not properly sized but word on the street is that it is a possibility inverts, ornamental shrimp, snails may be on the menu.

You could always pay the Vibrant thread in general a visit. It is a known product that works well with GHA. Skimmer required as is a weekly water change to remove the excess nutrients the decaying GHA provides. That is one possibility. Another option would be to manually remove as much as you can and continue to repopulate the snails. Manual removal isn't too bad but a bit time consuming.

1. cup/bowl of water
2. music of choice
3. step stool or ladder
4. towel(s)
5. gloves
6. reach in and pinch, twist slightly, gentle, lift
7. place in bowl/cup of water, rinse fingers
8. repeat
9. take a break at 10 minutes or so
10. resume or perform in 2 days

Utility fish or inverts are great but fish choice sometimes trump what we can keep. Flame's have some amazing personalities so I would try different snails and manual removal and see what you get. I didn't catch the size of the tank but I had amazing luck with a scopas and lavender tang with GHA although I'd go other routes first especially if tank size isn't supportive of long term care of large tangs.