snail bloom

[arpanlib]

hi,

i was just doing a routine checkup of the tank and i found many small, very small snails on the glass. what could this be????

 

they are about 1/2 mm

cannot see the colour, but they appear to be white and the number seems to be in hundreds.

 

what could these creatures be?? are they good or bad for the tank???

 

thanx for the help.

 

arpanlib

[tinyreef]

have you added anything new to the tank in the last two weeks? corals or clams? if so the snails may have hatched as hitchhikers (predators of that item).

 

before you siphon all of them out though check their shapes. if they start crawling toward a prized inhabitant than i'd bag them into a separate container until a verdict is passed for sure.

[Sahin]

This may sound silly but are you sure they are snails? --If they move, then they are most likely snails. Else, as I found out, mine turned out to be loads of tiny feather dusters. At first they looked like small white snail shells, but I later found out they were feather duster worms once the fans came out.

 

Aside from my silly idea above, they may be just snails that were present in your tank (if you didnt add anything to the tank within the last 3 weeks). If its just a case of snail population explosion then most likely the availability of excess or extra food resulted in this. The population will stabilise once the tank is stable and resources such as food will keep the snail population in check.

 

Anyway, follow tinyreefs sound advice.

Keep a close watch.