Whats up with all my snails??????????

[paintman]

Hey guys! I got a clean up crew from Reefcleaners about a month ago. Everything arrived alive! I got about 40 nerite/astrea snails with their package. Within a day of putting them in the tank all of them have moved up to the top of the tank into the corners and have not moved.
When I move them back down onto the rocks, within a day they are right back into the corners at the top of the tank. Fast little buggers it only takes them about an hour to move form the center of the tank (8Ft. tank) to the corners. Anyone know whats goin on? Once they get to the top of the tank they stay there and dont move. All huddled together.
Everythin else in the tank is doing fine fish/corals etc. all params are good as well.

 

[j.falk]

Snail party? LOL

All of my nerites sleep in the top corners of my tank. The only time I see them moving is at nighttime after the lights have gone out. My astrea on the other hand work night and day...those guys are always moving.

 

[Gernader]

That is completely normal for nerites. Try checking them during lights off. I noticed they only move at nighttime

 

[PicassoClown04]

Hi! Yes as the others said, nerites are night owls. Wait for lights off and watch them in dim light, they’ll be all over the place!

 

[Seaspirit]

I had two nerites in my nano tank and a word of warning, they tend to leave the tank completely. They carry water in their shells and can go a few days out of the water. I have one that stays in the tank and the other I found halfway up my bedroom wall one day (so at night he moved out of tank, into sump, out of sump, down aquarium back, down back of stand, across carpet and 5 feet up the wall). I put him back in the tank as I heard they eventually “adjust” but it’s a week later and he took off last night again and is gone. Other one has never left so it depends on the snail. Count them and if you don’t have a lid keep a close watch! I miss the little guy.

 

[phatduckk]

I’ve found my narite snails way on the other side of the garage numerous times (frag tank’s in my garage).

I eventually caved and got a screen for the tank.

 

[TDEcoral]

Nerite snails are from the intertidal zone, so they tend to spend a lot of time at the surface of our tanks, or even outside of them as a previous poster has said. It's why I don't include anything from the intertidal zone in my clean up crew.

 

[Seaspirit]

Last night at 2 am I crept into the room with a red light and FOUND the little nerite, am happy to say. Back he goes into the hang-on refugium which has a LID. No more field trips. He's the first thing I named in my tank (I know, they say never do that) because as soon as he hit the sand when he arrived, he started marching with determination and he's all black so I named him Darth. I could hear the Star Troopers march music just watching him. So of all the danged snails I'd rather not lose THAT one. Too much stuff hanging on tank edge (it's rimless) to do a screen, so no more nerites for me.

What else is from the intertidal zone that is in the usual CUC?