I Hit the Trochus Snail Lottery!

[Rick's Reviews]

Not many survivors, they get these puncture wounds or maybe hatching I'm unsure, I have mandarin and flame goby, maybe outer shell opens/deteriorates to allow eggs to float away

 

[trevorhiller]

Does anyone know how long after spawn until you start seeing babies, had two spawning events in the last three weeks.

I saw mine spawning on April 11th (i know because I made a post about it). Just started seeing them in the last 2 weeks or so. However, I did move to a new tank during that time frame so I potentially lost some eggs or maybe they just take a while to hatch.

I will say they seem to grow quickly though. There are a couple pushing about 1 cm diameter now.

I've also noticed a bunch of limpets as well. I spotted one the other week and someone on here was kind enough to ID it for me and now I have probably 6 of them that are always out in view. I do believe they might be breeding as well. Ironically, I never added one--it must have come in on live rock or the eggs did.

 

[Hadla]

I've also noticed a bunch of limpets as well. I spotted one the other week and someone on here was kind enough to ID it for me and now I have probably 6 of them that are always out in view. I do believe they might be breeding as well. Ironically, I never added one--it must have come in on live rock or the eggs did.

Strange that you mention it cause I have lots on the glass in my 75g! They’re so cute

 

[Squidward]

I bought my trochus back in 2019. Some died but they definitely made babies. And still got some today. Never had to buy them again.

 

[Sumo Reef]

These little buggers always cause my skimmer pump to stop

 

[Bucs20fan]

I feel you @Rick's Reviews I have around 20 nassarius in my tank, I have a deep sand bed and they do a great service. But man oh man, Idk how the heck they know, but if its a full moon, my glass is literally plagued with nassarius eggs. I mean everywhere and ive got a 4ft tank. Ive never seen a baby but I hear its rare they live anyway.

 

[pecan2phat]

I avoid these like the plague now because they reproduce and make they way into the fleece rollers and voila, ripped fleece.

 

[trevorhiller]

I avoid these like the plague now because they reproduce and make they way into the fleece rollers and voila, ripped fleece.

Yeah.... I have a ton of them in my sump now. I'm worried about them making their way into my pumps but we shall see.

 

[Lilly Moore]

Mine aren’t laying any eggs what can I do to encourage also no predators or crabs

 

[ZombieEngineer]

Mine aren’t laying any eggs what can I do to encourage also no predators or crabs

Make sure you have enough to breed. If you only have 2, there is a 25% chance you have all male or all female. If you only have 4, there is a 6% change all are one sex.

Trochus don't lay eggs, they release them into the water column when water parameters are favorable.

 

[trevorhiller]

I’m not sure what the ideal conditions are to replicate in the tanks, however, my tank was only a few months old when I saw them spawning.

I think the more you have the more likely they are to reproduce, but I wouldn’t go crazy because I started with 3 and now have 70+ plus in various stages of development.

I haven’t seen many empty shells, so I do believe that you can have quite a few in the tank without them starving each other out. For me, this is about 1 per gallon (although they are all currently smaller than what you would buy from a store) and I still have plenty of visible algae even with urchins and crabs in the tank.

I’m sure if you bought one for every 3-5 gallons or maybe 4-5 for smaller nano tanks, this would be good amount.

 

[Glowurm]

I love these snails, but i feel kinda bad, i have in excess of 300 of them now and the local LFS cant take them back until they reach a reasonable size. Gonna have a lot of dead snails on my hands as my tank wont be able to support them...

 

[trevorhiller]

I love these snails, but i feel kinda bad, i have in excess of 300 of them now and the local LFS cant take them back until they reach a reasonable size. Gonna have a lot of dead snails on my hands as my tank wont be able to support them...

You would be surprised how many your tank can support. How big is your tank?

You could always try mailing them to a fellow reefer if you definitively believe you have too many, but I would probably just leave them alone. If there wasn’t available food in your tank, I don’t think they would be spawning.