jDoSe
Active Member
So normally i am pretty good at researching these things, but these guys have me a bit stumped.
Part of the reason is because a lot of other posts commonly mis-identify what their snail is, and the people posting actually don’t have a clue.
These aren’t hitchhikers, I actually purchased them (so no help on origin). Well, technically I wanted to purchase them, but I got them for free. They were in a large invert system mixed with many different snails. There were no medium-sized versions of these snails, only the tiny ones. I “bought” them hoping they weren’t trochus and would stay tiny.
I’ve purchased them once before, and they never got much bigger than 5mm. The weird thing is at this size they lay alot of eggs and actually spawn in the tank at this size. Last time i had maybe 2-3 generations of these tiny snails.
I got some more now, and they already started laying eggs everywhere; like last time.
They have a pointy shell, so I don’t believe they are a type of collonista snail, though they reproduce like collonistas. I looked up all the different types of collonista, but none had pointy shells and all looked like our run-of-the-mill collonista. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collonista
I would have definitely said a type of trochus snail, which is one of the few that successfully reproduce in our tanks, but these tiny ones don’t seem to grow to normal trochus size. Also, I don’t think trochus would spawn when only 3mm in size, yet these do abundantly (but maybe they actually are capable and this is normal?). Most of our aquarium trochus have a black flesh. These are white with some black speckles/spots on top of their flesh. The shells are banded but not the typical colors of a banded trochus. Half like the liverock, half like the glass. None like the sand. If flipped over, they can right themselves like a trochus, so probably not a species of astraea. The eggs are tiny white eggs in a mucus sack on the glass. It has feelers like other trochus snails, but i’m not sure if this can identify anything by number, shape, location, etc.
It’s surprising difficult to find good images of confirmed 100% baby trochus snails. Most of the time it’s a different snail (collonista), there are other snails in the tank it could be, the pictures are horrendously poor quality, etc. A lot of people say trochus reproduce in their tank, but supply no pictures. I have only seen large 1”+ trochus and the tiny 3mm ones, yet nothing in-between.
There are many types of trocus species, but too hard to go through them all and find actual pictures: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trochus
Or they could be something else? Dove snails are out as well.
Part of the reason is because a lot of other posts commonly mis-identify what their snail is, and the people posting actually don’t have a clue.
These aren’t hitchhikers, I actually purchased them (so no help on origin). Well, technically I wanted to purchase them, but I got them for free. They were in a large invert system mixed with many different snails. There were no medium-sized versions of these snails, only the tiny ones. I “bought” them hoping they weren’t trochus and would stay tiny.
I’ve purchased them once before, and they never got much bigger than 5mm. The weird thing is at this size they lay alot of eggs and actually spawn in the tank at this size. Last time i had maybe 2-3 generations of these tiny snails.
I got some more now, and they already started laying eggs everywhere; like last time.
They have a pointy shell, so I don’t believe they are a type of collonista snail, though they reproduce like collonistas. I looked up all the different types of collonista, but none had pointy shells and all looked like our run-of-the-mill collonista. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collonista
I would have definitely said a type of trochus snail, which is one of the few that successfully reproduce in our tanks, but these tiny ones don’t seem to grow to normal trochus size. Also, I don’t think trochus would spawn when only 3mm in size, yet these do abundantly (but maybe they actually are capable and this is normal?). Most of our aquarium trochus have a black flesh. These are white with some black speckles/spots on top of their flesh. The shells are banded but not the typical colors of a banded trochus. Half like the liverock, half like the glass. None like the sand. If flipped over, they can right themselves like a trochus, so probably not a species of astraea. The eggs are tiny white eggs in a mucus sack on the glass. It has feelers like other trochus snails, but i’m not sure if this can identify anything by number, shape, location, etc.
It’s surprising difficult to find good images of confirmed 100% baby trochus snails. Most of the time it’s a different snail (collonista), there are other snails in the tank it could be, the pictures are horrendously poor quality, etc. A lot of people say trochus reproduce in their tank, but supply no pictures. I have only seen large 1”+ trochus and the tiny 3mm ones, yet nothing in-between.
There are many types of trocus species, but too hard to go through them all and find actual pictures: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trochus
Or they could be something else? Dove snails are out as well.
I'll go searching and see if I can get a better reply. (I don't have a picture of my tiny Turbo's, either.)
