20141101 Mexican Turbo Snail

The Mexican Turbo Snail, Turbo fluctuosa, is a very commonly available cleaner crew in the aquarium trade. They are easily accessible and not as expensive as other snail such as trochus. The only problem is, well, two problems are: 1. You can't seem to keep them alive long enough or 2. If you do keep them alive long enough they get really large and start knocking things over all the time.

Mexican Turbo Snail

So first of all, why can't you keep them alive? Well, most saltwater hobbyist like to keep "tropical" fish or "reef". This means they tend to keep the tank temperature at lower 80's or at least in the hight 70's to accommodate the most adequate survival needs for most of their specimens originated from Western/South pacific, or the Caribbean. So here comes the problem- the turbo snail is actually NOT a true tropical animal. 

Although this snail can tolerate exposure to warm temperature. In the long run, they do best living under cooler conditions. Keeping them a few weeks, or even months in a warmer habitat may not kill them, but they will not thrive as much as they would have in cooler condition.

Secondly, They are large, so they have a large appetite. This translates to they'll need to patrol a larger area than most other snail species in the trade to get enough algae grazing for nutrition gain. So often times people "overstock" them. Also, these snail lives in tidal zone with rubbles. Even when they end up on their back, the constant, strong tide would have swept them upright. So they do not need to worry about falling or flipping over. But when they fall from a glass aquarium wall, their shell mechanism will for them to fall on their back. And like an astrea snail, this snail cannot turn themselves over once they are on their back. If not caught within minutes, they will close up to protect themselves from predators and then die of hunger.

Conclusion- They are not suitable for tropical aquaria. Also, because of their huge size they can easily knock over any coral/inverts not secured in the tank. 

Death of a clam

I have not posted for a while because I am really depressed for what you can read in the title. My beautiful five inch Tahitian Maxima clam died four days after I performed the fresh water dip. The clam first showed signs of revival the first day, and then things just went downhill really fast after the second day.

I soaked what was left of the clam in chlorine to bleach out all and any microscopic lives on the shell to investigate the cause of death. As you can see, there is significant boring algae infection in the core of this clam.

In this photo, you can see the little holes in the bottom of the clam shell, caused by boring sponge while the clam was young, the boring sponge left holes for boring algae to invade and take over. The shell infected is significantly thinner than the other half.

The Inside view of the infected area. It looks like death is only a matter of time for this clam.

So the lesson learned here is that before you purchase any clam in the future, You MUST lift up the clam and observe the entire surface of the clam's shell (including the bottom) to detect any infections that may be otherwise be hidden while you view it from the top and its side. To me, that was a $230 lesson. Actually, make that $430 as three days following the Maxima's death, the raised nitrate level in the water also killed my 6" Derasa clam.