How early can trochus snails breed?

[Reefinmike]

Hey all, one month ago a kind coral farmer let me scrape out about 80 baby trochus snails from his large frag system. They have since doubled size to about the size of a bb(0.177”) and i realy like them- especially since they right themselves when flipped over. The other day I saw one of them shoot out a little cloud for about 2 seconds when i hit it with a flash light. Shortly after i saw a another snail encircled in eggs about 8 inches away. Minutes later i spotted a tiiiny trochus snail. The picture i attached shows it next to 3/8” glass. Obviously i know that baby snail wasn’t spawned and hatched right in front if my eyes but i wonder if the snails started breeding earlier? Or is it possible that it came in as an egg on the snails when added one month ago and is only that big 30+ days later? I have been seeing larger U shaped egg sacks on the glass for a few weeks but I always assumed this was from featherdusters that seem to be producing sacs of eggs at their opening. Perhaps the snail I saw surrounded by eggs just went into a feather dusters eggs at an opportune time? The egg sacs ive been seeing on the glass have always been U shaped, never circular. The snail surrounded by eggs didn’t plow a path through, it rode over them. The couple videos ive seen of trochus spawning shows them shooting eggs into the water column, not laying “sacs”.

Is it possible that my trochus snails are spawning when this small? They are definitely trochus, not coloniata snails. They have a distinctive pointed shell.

 

[jsker]

Lets see if someone has an answer

#reefsquad

 

[saltyhog]

Those are definitely trochus babies. I've raised a bunch of them but have never seen the eggs. The eggs are not laid like other snails but are broadcast randomly in the water just like the sperm. Mine are usually white when they are small and start to get color when they get about 3-4 mm in size. I'll see if I can find the video of them spawning and pictures of the little ones.

 

[saltyhog]

Here's the videos. The first one shows primarily the sperm(smoke) but if you look close you can see the eggs that look like little white dots. The second video shows the eggs more clearly.

 

[Katrina71]

Dirty little snails

 

[ihavecrabs]

They sure can breed! I have a few babies in my tank and have witnessed the white clouds coming from them. My favorite snails.

 

[Reefinmike]

You had some real luck catching both snails right next to each other spawning. the few other videos I see also show the snails broadcasting the eggs throughout the tank. I've spotted a few more microscopic babies so I'm almost positive that they are already breeding at "bb" size.

ihavecrabs- did you spot babies spawning in your tank or adult trochus snails?

 

[ihavecrabs]

I've only witnessed it at quarter sized trochus and larger. It can also be triggered as an environmental response for survival. I had a few do this moving between my QT and display tank after quarantine. Maybe have been a slight temp or ph difference that triggered it.

When you say "bb" sized, you mean the size of a BB pellet?

 

[Reefinmike]

I've only witnessed it at quarter sized trochus and larger. It can also be triggered as an environmental response for survival. I had a few do this moving between my QT and display tank after quarantine. Maybe have been a slight temp or ph difference that triggered it.

When you say "bb" sized, you mean the size of a BB pellet?

Yup, they are all a little bigger than a BB (0.177") now. When I hit one of them with a flashlight it shot out a cloud for about two seconds and I am seeing more and more microscopic babies. Yesterday I counted three in my overflow. It's been about 6 weeks since I added an urchin and the small trochus snails so I am almost certain these microscopic babies are a result of spawning in my tank. It's awesome watching them grow up, they are nearly triple the size I got them 6 weeks back. Much better than my slowly dwindling population of margarita snails.

 

[ihavecrabs]

Yup, they are all a little bigger than a BB (0.177") now. When I hit one of them with a flashlight it shot out a cloud for about two seconds and I am seeing more and more microscopic babies. Yesterday I counted three in my overflow. It's been about 6 weeks since I added an urchin and the small trochus snails so I am almost certain these microscopic babies are a result of spawning in my tank. It's awesome watching them grow up, they are nearly triple the size I got them 6 weeks back. Much better than my slowly dwindling population of margarita snails.

Interesting..

I know I did research on a specific breed and it came up that they needed to be a specific size before breeding. I'll have to search to see what kind it was.

I would have thought they would need to mature a lot further than that before spawning but that is a gut feeing.. no fact behind it!

 

[Junglejim]

These are just regular banded trochus snails

 

[MTBake]

I have some trochus snails. Sure would be cool to see them spawn.

I did catch about 8 astrea snails spawning in a group about 2 months ago in my tank. Wish I would have taken a video of it. The entire tank looked like milk for several hours. Sure was cool to see.

 

[Reefinmike]

I took a closer look and found 6 more very tiny trochus snails in my return chamber and 4 in my overflow. Some are the size of an average grain of table salt. considering how fast the original ones have grown I find it hard to believe these microscopic ones came in as eggs hitchhiking on the urchin or baby trochus I added 6 weeks ago.

 

[stefanm]

I added 10 to my tank around 7 weeks back, I've seen a couple of small fellows and also one that's around half inch in diameter.

Very rarely see these on the rock work, they prefer the overflow and glass..

 

[saltyhog]

At that size(grain of salt) how are you identifying them as snails? I have to use a magnifying glass to identify mine at the BB size. All of mine less than 2-3 mm are solid white. With the magnification I can see their antennae but without it I can't at that size.

 

[Reefinmike]

At that size(grain of salt) how are you identifying them as snails?

Maybe a bit of an underestimation, more like the width of two grains of salt or ~.03”. They all carry the distinct shape, patterns and antenna/siphon tube as the larger trochus snails. I removed some from my overflow today but left a few of the tiniest ones. There is a .177” bb in the picture for reference. The smallest one pictured is .07”. I’ve seen them half that size.

I restarted my tank with sterile rock and sand. Aside from the snails and urchin added 6 weeks ago I haven’t added anything to my system in 5 months. I have no colonista snails and haven’t seen these until this week. Pretty safe to say without a doubt they are trochus.

 

[saltyhog]

Those larger ones are about 4mm or larger. The smaller ones about 2mm. Mine usually don't have color at that size...usually about 3mm. Great job!

 

[Reefinmike]

Thank you for the insight saltyhog. I can see the color in them as small as 1mm. Do you have the same variety of trochus? I wonder if parameter differences cause this. I’m fighting to get my nitrates above 0.25. I keep my alk high between 10-11. PH is constantly low from high co2, I’m happy if it hits 8.0. The rest of the parameters are in check.

I’m extremely happy with these snails since they’re growing so darn fast, apparently breeding and can flip themselves over. My only worry is that they’ll get caught up in my koralia/ gyre.

 

[Reefinmike]

These larger snails are about the same size as the big ones in my last shot. I’m starting to see these microscopic trochus snails everywhere!!!

 

[samnaz]

nice! if you're concerned about them surviving to adulthood, maybe there is a way to help increase their chances. I wonder how many of them are lost by floating into the powerheads. In the photo above the tiny one looks to have a solid grip on the glass already. Are there any other possible causes of juvenile death such as predators, filters, etc.?

I'm hoping they make it to adulthood, and when you have too many you can send some to me ;-)