Too many snails?

[JaaxReef]

I have a 45 gallon cube with 40 lbs of live rock and sand.

Right now I have 4 Astrea and 5 dwarf cerith snails. No hermits. I just placed an order for 5 trochus snails along with my pod order from Algae Barn. I have 4 small fish (flame hawk, 2 clowns, and a tiny starry blenny) and feed them fairly well.

Is this going to be overboard adding the 5 trochus?

I do notice a small amount of hair algae on the rocks and film does build up on the glass after 3-4 days or so. I don’t want them to starve but I also felt like what I had wasn’t quite keeping up now that the tank has been up and running for 9 months. I just don’t want them to starve and have die off and an algae bloom.

Thank you for your time and replies!

 

[BlueCursor]

Is there food for them to live? If so then you are fine. I know a guy who has 200 Trochus in his 300 gal tank. And his snails are breeding!

In my 100 gal tank, I have about a dozen snails. If I added a dozen more half of them would probably die from starvation. It isn't about numbers, it's about food and balance.

 

[JaaxReef]

Is there food for them to live? If so then you are fine. I know a guy who has 200 Trochus in his 300 gal tank. And his snails are breeding!

In my 100 gal tank, I have about a dozen snails. If I added a dozen more half of them would probably die from starvation. It isn't about numbers, it's about food and balance.

Right! Food and balance. I don’t want to over do it, but there should be plenty of film algae, some diatoms, and a little hair algae for them to eat. I don’t have any severe blooms, but my current CUC is not keeping it as clean as I would like after watching the tank for a few months. I figured I would add a few more and wanted to see if anyone thought that was a bad idea.

 

[acro-ed]

I have 100+ trochus in my 150 (ranging from the size of a bb to fully grown). I started with about 25 and they have reproduced like crazy. A few of the original ones have died, but they still spawn from time to time. I feel like they will naturally limit themselves now that they are reproducing in there.

With snails the availability of food for them will limit them. If you add too many then some will die off.

 

[don_chuwish]

You'll be fine. The Astrea in my experience don't last long anyway, so at some point you'll have more Trochus than Astrea. My ORA Trochus from Algae Barn have been making babies like crazy too.

 

[JaaxReef]

You'll be fine. The Astrea in my experience don't last long anyway, so at some point you'll have more Trochus than Astrea. My ORA Trochus from Algae Barn have been making babies like crazy too.

I hope they aren’t constantly breeding! My tank isn’t too big! Haha.