How early can trochus snails breed?

Reefinmike · Oct 10, 2018

Ooh they face many obstacles in my tank but if only 1/100 survive I’ll still have a growing population. Once they go down the overflow they’ll meet filter floss that gets changed out every three days. If they get past that and through my return without being killed they have a 1/5 chance of going through my UV sterilizer. There are no predators in the tank as of now but i would like a wrasse at some point for general pest prevention. My biggest worry is they’ll get in the koralia that i have flipping on and off every 30 minutes or the gyre pump i have off at night. There is always one or two on the gyre. More worried about the $200 pump than the free snails lol.

I’ll let ya know if i start getting too many lol

saltyhog · Oct 10, 2018

I have zero babies in the DT. I'm sure this is due to some large Halichoeres wrasses and a leopard wrasse. Mine are all in the sump. They seem to get there despite my filtration. I suspect they get there as fertilized eggs. Once they are big enough to not be in danger from the wrasses I just pluck them out of the sump and move them up.

Reefinmike · Oct 10, 2018

The one place I couldn’t find the babies of babies is in my fuge bc it is fed with steralized water. The UV helps keep the glass clean longer and reduces bacteria that slime up and clog my filter floss prematurely. I think I’ll have to move some of the big babies to the fuge to start procreating.

ihavecrabs · Oct 10, 2018

Reefinmike said:
The one place I couldn’t find the babies of babies is in my fuge bc it is fed with steralized water. The UV helps keep the glass clean longer and reduces bacteria that slime up and clog my filter floss prematurely. I think I’ll have to move some of the big babies to the fuge to start procreating.

Where abouts are you from? If your close, I take a few off your hands! haha

saltyhog · Oct 11, 2018

Here's a picture I took tonight of one of my tiny babies. This one is about 1-1.5mm. At this size mine are snow white. I wonder if there is more than one variety of trochus?

Isn't he cute?

Reefinmike · Oct 11, 2018

Saltyhog- wow those are bright white! I wonder if thw differences we’re seeing are different varieties or due to tank parameters?

saltyhog · Oct 11, 2018

Reefinmike said:
Saltyhog- wow those are bright white! I wonder if thw differences we’re seeing are different varieties or due to tank parameters?

Good question. I bet our major parameters are pretty close.

Mine are : Alk.....8.1
Ca......430
Mg.....1440
NO3....0.5
PO4....0.02

I did have really low iodine on my last ICP testing. Wonder if that could be the reason for the white babies? They do get the normal coloration once they get bigger.

saltyhog · Oct 13, 2018

Well, came downstairs to a cloudy tank just as the blues are coming on. Sure enough the Trochus are having another orgy. The fish are starting to figure this out and take advantage.

Reefinmike · Oct 20, 2018

Haha good job catching that on video salty! Your fish also catch pretty good too

I have absolutely no doubt that my bb size trochus snails are already breeding. Over the past week I have seen hundreds of new baby trochus snails. They are without a doubt trochus snails with identical shell shape, coloration, antenna and siphon locations. I did however find one oddball. I believe it is a mutant trochus. It is fairly flat and almost resembles a sundial snail the way it orients itself vertically. It has the coloration, face and foot of the trochus yet it cannot easily flip itself over. I highy doubt it is anything but a malformed or fast growing trochus but I think I have to exile him while I still can.

saltyhog · Oct 20, 2018

Yep, took a few spawns but my fish have caught on. They also eat the RFA spawn when they do their thing.

Reefinmike · Nov 11, 2018

Update: I keep finding more and more of the “mutant” trochus babies and I believe they are actually babies from the 10 or so “cold water” margarita snails that survived.

The new trochus snail babies number in the hundreds and judging by sizes there have been 4-5 spawns. As I suspected, my trochus snails are actually laying eggs, not broadcast spawning. I finally caught it on video. You can see eggs coming out of the lower side of it’s shell.

Dbzbladex · May 27, 2020

Watched 3 of mine breed for about an hour the other night. Wonder how long before I can expect to see babies. Hoping I get some at all.

Saltyanimals · Aug 6, 2020

Curious as well as to timing. I've seen mine do the cloud, but never actually looked into how long before you start seeing little ones. I don't think I've ever thought about this.. I seem to always have snails and come to think about it.... I really haven't replenished. lol.

Polyp Punk · Mar 30, 2023

I have a 6.5 gallon and my two trochus snails started breeding like crazy. They keep secreting that while substance. It’s to the point that I’m wondering if I need to do a water change. Will this effect my corals ?

Confused · Apr 1, 2023

samnaz said:
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 ;-)

I've Watched the spawning, maybe 3 months later (4/20/21) decide I wanted a larger tank, got a Larger tank left the sand behind, I would have to guess some were left behind with it... (still feel bad) Anyways, fast forward to well right now, I can count 5 from my desk on the glass.(6ish feet away) pea sized but like a hair on your phone screen. they're in the sump, filter socks little buggers get everywhere don't want to crush them getting them out of the socks. I have a Wrasse, clowns, couple tangs, bleeny, goby with a pistol, and some big red and blue legged crabs. like they wear 2 to 3in turbo shells, I'm pretty sure they stole

. also 3 power heads, uv, skimmer. I would give them a 15 out of 10 for Survivability

I've always had good luck with these guys if your still looking for them. personally my favorite for its self righting abilities