Fighting Conchs are omnivorous, meaning that they’ll eat both meaty foods and vegetation, but in your aquarium, they’ll act herbivorous most of the time. They feed on algae, bacteria, and detritus which can always be found around a fish tank. They stretch out their snout so that they can use their tooth like tube to scrape off algae from rocks and other surfaces.
Bacteria and detritus are eaten as the gastropod sift through the substrate. The majority of their time is spent looking for food, and burrowing in sand and silt takes up a lot of that time. They need lots of food, which is why they are always foraging. The amount of algae, bacteria, and detritus in the tank already usually isn’t enough, so you need to supplement this with your own food.
You can do this by adding dried foods like algae pellets/wafers. They will eat uneaten foods that were intended for their tank mates too.
The amount of food you add will depend on the number of algae and detritus in the tank, so look closely. Since algae is a big part of a Fighting Conch’s diet, don’t remove all of it when cleaning the tank. It is important to provide calcium. This is an important component of developing a strong and healthy shell.
