How long has your Fighting Conch Hibernated?

[stan]

Just wanted to do a quick poll. My fighting conch, after 3 weeks of very busy grazing, has buried itself and hasn't moved in almost a month.

 

I know where it is and can occasionally see it's eye stalk poke out of the sand. i havent seen anything out of him for at least a week.

 

Is it sick/dying? Im tempted to unbury the thing and put it to work but that seems a bit cruel. He was a dynamo when he was active, kept my sand really clean, now my sand is dingy.

 

Does yours do the same and, if so, for how long? How can i coax it out?

[567a]

tagging along.....

 

Mine has been hanging out in the same area of the tank (back behind a powerhead but not buried) for about a month now too. Every few days I'll catch it out grazing, but it is nothing like it was the first 4 months I had it.

[Razin Kane]

mine stays stationary for 3 days at a time. he doesnt have enough room to move, poor little guy. I do have caves he can crawl in to get all access to the the tank. I need to redo my rockwork for him. i figure as long as his eyes are out, he's just chillin.

[Quash]

for real, or maybe its just that you dont see him on the move at nite

[djconn]

I have 3 fighting conches. 2 look the same with the long 'eye' poking out of the sand and they kind of resemble snails. The other looks similar but with more of an extending 'vacuum' for a mouth and no poking eye. I asked my LFS guys what is the difference and he said that there are many many different species of conches.

 

The 2 with the eyes stay in the sand and NEVER come out unless I've just fed the tank something. They are boring and don't do much of anything. And no, they aren't out at night.

 

The other one with the long extending vacuum mouth is ALWAYS out and about. On the glass, on the sand, on my rock even. He is awesome and is a super duper cleaner.

[Quash]

Mine moves only at nite, cleanin off that detritus like woh

[brahm]

mine always seems pretty active.

[Wonder Boy]

Conch are largely nocturnal, I know Mine is when I first got "her" ("she" is a queen) I thought she was just lazy . I did some reasearch and took up Night tank watching., low and behold she was out munching away.

[stan]

Thanks for the replies!

 

It have a fighting conch with the long elephant snout thing.

 

Mine isnt moving at all. Day or night. I know this because the sand where the conch is buried is perfectly undisturbed. If there was some movement i'd see it. I know it's right there, in fact i was curious and gently poked a bamboo skewer into the sand and i felt its shell. No movement.

 

Im concerned because it was very active the first 2 weeks i had it.. all over the sand, even grazing on the lower rocks and glass. Then one day it decided to go into hibernation with only the eye stalk sticking out and the elephant trunk coming out occasionally. Now i dont even see that.

 

So im guessing, from your posts, that this is not normal. Maybe it's dead... i'll unbury it this evening and see if it's even alive.

[Wonder Boy]

I'm fairly sure they all have that elephant trunk thing, it's their mouth. If yours doesn’t have one, it's dead.

[Funkymonkey]

The trunk isn't their mouth. Anyways, what size tank do you have? You might be starving the guy, they need alot of food...

[Wonder Boy]

I should have clarified; it all depends on what trunk you're talking about. They have two one of which is a mouth. From what I have read on university websites the only time they should hibernate is during winter or "heavy storms" as these conditions are unlikely to be duplicated in your tank the Conch is most likely stressed. This may be due to lack of food, the proper food, or adaptation to his new surroundings. They prefer "green" alga over red, and feeding can be supplemented with "sea weed" sheets such as would be found at an oriental food store. Hope that clears things up.

[stan]

I have an Eclipse 12G. I know now that it's probably too small for a Fighting Conch. But the LFS guy said it was going to be fine in a 12, so i bought it. My sand has a good amount of algae and detritus so i really think there is enough food for it to graze.

 

Water params are great. 1.025 and zeroes across the board for Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, Phos.

 

Before it went into hibernation it was my most interesting invert. Eating, cruising and crapping all over the place. Since he's been gone, the sand bed has gone to sh*t .

 

I did a little research on RC this morning and it appears that the FC might be in the process of growing out it's shell and needs some time alone. So im not going to unbury it for another week. It is alive though (whew!), i saw the eye stalk yesterday evening and the eye quickly shrunk away into the sand when it saw me.

 

Wonderboy: Regarding the seaweed feeding.. how do you do it? Just lay it in it's general vicinity and hope he goes for it? I think the current will blow the seaweed around.

 

Also would anyone recommend me physically unburying it?

[Wonder Boy]

If he’s truly hunger, which he should be if he hasn’t eaten in awhile, he should go straight to it if it’s anywhere near him. It may take some time for him to associate you laying green stuff with feeding time, but from what I’ve seen they are very intelligent and will learn quickly. If you know for sure he’s alive I’d leave him be; he’ll come out when he’s ready.