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where to find Stomatella Snails

Porkchops reef

By Porkchops reef,
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Porkchops reef

Porkchops reef

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I have been looking for some stomatella snails. does anyone sell them? i know they are not very popular but i would like some in my tank.

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Tired

Tired

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I don't think I've ever seen them for sale by an official seller. You may have more luck seeing if you can find someone on here who has extras, since some species breed in reef tanks. Lemme know if you do spot an online seller with some, though, I like those. 

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Porkchops reef

Porkchops reef

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19 minutes ago, Tired said:

I don't think I've ever seen them for sale by an official seller. You may have more luck seeing if you can find someone on here who has extras, since some species breed in reef tanks. Lemme know if you do spot an online seller with some, though, I like those. 

i have only seen some on ebay a few times. i hope someone does have some on here that would like to part with some.

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Porkchops reef

Porkchops reef

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19 minutes ago, Thrassian Atoll said:

I have never seen them for sale.  I wonder why that is though?  Do they not breed well in captivity?

i dont know they are pretty cool looking and they are very fast for a snail. i had one that came in on a live rock, but it was on the glass and i didnt see it when cleaning and it cracked its shell and it was the end for him. i have wanted more ever since but have not been able to find any. i had someone tell me they do breed fast in the tank. but i would like to find some for my tank.

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Thrassian Atoll

Thrassian Atoll

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I have only encountered them as hitchhikers.  Might want to ask on your local reef club page and see if anybody has any.

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Tired

Tired

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It's definitely nothing to do with captive breeding. Some stomatellas readily breed in aquaria. More than that, most snails sold for reefs are NOT captive-bred. I think there's just not very much demand for them. Maybe they're hard to catch in the wild, too, little flat guys. 

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mcarroll

mcarroll

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They only come as hitchhikers.  

 

If you've ever tried to remove a limpet or abalone from a rock that it didn't want to let go of, then you'd have an idea why Stomatella's are never found for sale.  You could probably guess why if you knew their nickname – "paper shell snail" or "fingernail snail".  

 

In summary, they hold on really tight AND there's no shell for you to grab onto as with a Turbo snail.  As a result, removing a Stomatella (as with limpets and abalone) from their substrate is often lethal...so unless you want to eat them you pretty much leave them alone.

 

(These are also two of the reasons they are so successful as live rock hitchhikers, surviving live rock shipments when not much else their size does.)

 

Too bad since they are really ideal reef tank denizens...at least in tanks that can grow a little green algae.

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Tamberav

Tamberav

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I have noticed stomellas will drop their tail as a defense mechanism, much like a lizard will. NOT from prying, literally you touch them and it just goes flying off and wiggles like crazy. I am not sure if they grow it back or not, I have never put a number on one to find the same stomella later 😛 It does not seem to kill/harm them though.

 

I find them easy to remove from glass since you can just slide something under them but ya... a rock would be difficult. Macroalgae would be easy though. They do however, RUN, FAST! and once disturbed they hide for the next few days. Not a stupid snail by any means. 

 

I sent some stomella/stars/strombus since Illinois close to me, once shipping returns back to normal, I can mail to others. That might not be till next spring though 😕

 

 

 

 

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  • 7 months later...
  • 4 weeks later...
rough eye

rough eye

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so i saw one in my tank tonight, crawling up the glass. never knew i had any. he was a pretty big sucker too. don't know if i'll ever see him again.

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Tired

Tired

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Heck, just go to a LFS and look through all the tanks. The biggest problem there is probably getting the snail out alive, little guys are hard to peel off of glass without hurting them. If you're a regular customer, maybe you can convince them to let you try and catch it yourself. I'd try caging it in with the edges of a net and hoping it crawls into the net, getting it to crawl onto a credit card, or trying to herd it onto the sand. 

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  • 7 months later...
Tired

Tired

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Bought a small chunk of live rock from my LFS recently, and at least three stomatellas came with it. They're really fast if you scare them! Never seen an animal with no legs crawl that fast. Heck, I've seen plenty of legged animals that can't move that fast. 

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  • 2 years later...
mcarroll

mcarroll

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While they have always seemed like an ideal CUC member to me, they must not be all that happy in tanks because they don't seem show up OR reproduce to any significant degree...if they did it's hard to imagine they wouldn't be "for sale - captive bred" all over the place.

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