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Ninja Star snails


Aurortpa

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I finally found some ninja star snails so I bought 7!  That’s a lot for me, my CUC usually consists of one or a few of each critter BUT I will say my absolutely longest lived snail is the one ninja star snail I have (+3 years old).  

 

They aren’t as fast as my turbos, but they get in the nooks and crannies, are very sticky in addition to a spiny shell, so seem undesirable to be preyed upon. I’m stoked! 🤗FA23AE78-26B6-480E-855F-B52A5527614C.thumb.jpeg.37c11ca33d727df5f1972d9e3448834f.jpeg

 

 

 

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I have 2 in my 24G aquapod along with a mix of other snails like trochus, 2 nerites (grumble, ####ing carpet surfer as-s-hatz), some stocky ceriths, some large florida ceriths (awesome, they dig into the sand), some dwarf ceriths, nassarius, and common marginellas.  The ninja star snails are definitely the coolest looking and they do a good job working their way around the tank.  IMO though its best to have a mix of a bunch of different species as they all seem to prefer slightly different algaes and have different specializations on where and what they clean.

 

 

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Do you know if these snails fall and land on their back can they turn themselves over? I had a person in my LFS highly recommend them but I am not around enough to flip snail that fall so I only get snails that can take care of themselves. 

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7 hours ago, FollyFish said:

Do you know if these snails fall and land on their back can they turn themselves over? I had a person in my LFS highly recommend them but I am not around enough to flip snail that fall so I only get snails that can take care of themselves. 

The older one I have never is on his back. The strength of his grip is significantly stronger than what I’d expect from his smaller foot.  I think these guys specialize in clean crevices, as he’s typically always just on the rock. When they hide in there, their exposes spikes usually deter other inverts from even bothering them imo.  Only on occasion like every few days, like 1 out of the 7 new ones I got, tries to get on the glass and falls.  At that point, no they can’t right themselves. Once they are fully settled into my tank, I imagine they will stay on rock like older one hopefully.

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Yes they can flip themselves over.  The only exception would be if they literally fall and wedge themselves in the most perfectly worst angle in between rocks or something because of their long thin shell with spikes.  Sand wont pose a problem.  I've never even seen mine fall though, ever.  They grip strong and due to the shape of their shell they have a low center of gravity and are never really in a position to fall off stuff.

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