wrasse's and snails

[abirozy]

Hello

I have a question that hopefully does not sound too weird.

I am going to be getting a leopard warasse and coris wrasse shortly and I know they like to bury themselves in the sand. My question is in regards to snails. I want to get some snails to help with the diatom algae and other algae that comes with a relatively new tank, but some of them state that the snails stir up and/or bury themselves in the sand.

Question:

Will this harm or disturb my wrasses? I am just afraid if the snail is burying itself, it may harm the wrasse that is already buried.

Thanks

Adam

 

[eatbreakfast]

Generally nassarius snails wont bother the wrasses. The coris wrasse may try and hunt them as it gets older but since the snails usually stay buried during the day they should be safe.

 

[airin]

I have a Mystery Wrasse and my tank is littered with empty Turbo snail shells... and I am pretty sure he is do blame. I would worry more about the snails getting eaten than them bothering the wrasses. I do have a fighting conch that has been in the tank with the wrasse for the past year with no issues.

 

[evolved]

Generally nassarius snails wont bother the wrasses. The coris wrasse may try and hunt them as it gets older but since the snails usually stay buried during the day they should be safe.

+1

abirozy, when you say "coris wrasse", what species are you referring to? If it's actually a wrasse of the Coris genus, it's quite likely you won't have snails left to worry about. ;)

 

[Mike&Terry]

FWIW, nassarius snails eat detritus, leftover food, fish poo - they are not algae eaters.

Fighting conchs and sea cucumbers (Holothuria sp) are excellent sand cleaners that will eat detritus as well as algae, diatoms and even cyano. We have kept them with terelabrus sp., H. chrysus, M bipartitus and M kuiteri wrasses and never had problems with these fish eating them.