Snail with bad habits?

[redchick2]

I came home and was searching for the mysterious clam thing, when I noticed my snail (turbo/turban) was smoking. Didn't actually have a marlboro, but had a smokey cloud all around it. This lasted for a few seconds then it went on doing whatever it is snails like to do. What's going on with it? Is this a sign of some "snail sickness?

thanks

 

[AndrewH]

The snail could possibly be spawning. Do you have multiple turbo's? They usually spawn when water parameters are good so I wouldn't worry you're obviously doing a good job.

 

[roka64]

That's what it sounds like to me too.

 

[melosu58]

I agree

 

[redchick2]

I've had the snail for a while now, and unless there are some tiny ones I don't know about, it is the only one I have. Maybe it's really lonely and pretending? : )
It is acting completely normal and continuing its battle against all evil algae as if it never spurted in the tank. I guess I'll know in a few weeks....

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Well... how to say this in a family-friendly environment...

You only need one male snail to release sperm. Now if anything is to come of it, well... just like humans, that's where the other snail would come into play.

So yeah... I guess it's just pretending. Or practicing.

I've witnessed spawning events in my tank with trochus snails and that is indeed what you saw. Better than the Nature Channel, huh?!

 

[Fierro Nights]

i think one of my snails did this, but i dont know what kind of snail it is, i got a snail from aquarium world and a snail from another store, one was a trochus snail, the other was a turbo, so they say anyway, they look EXACTLY the same, one did take longer to actually look alive though.

 

[Fierro Nights]

whats the difference between trochus and turbo? anything i can look for? or was i sold the just one type of snail, they have fat pointed shells, tan skin w/ green pattern on skin, have a round mouth and look like they have eyes. and another tube coming out of the shell, i think that last tube is the out-put part of the snail.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

What you describe sounds like a turbo - green tinted foot, and fat. I wouldn't call it a pointed shell though - turbos seem to have more of a rounded shell. Trochus have a conical shell, and look a lot like astreas. But trochus have a black foot, and the astreas have more of a white/cream colored foot.

Good pictures of shells here...

Aquarium Snails: Sea Snail Species and Aquatic Saltwater Snails

 

[Fierro Nights]

well the bottom of the foot is cream colored, like tan, its the part i see on the glass, but on its top part of its body, not the shell but its actual skin has not green tint but a green pattern/design.

 

[cmor1701d]

Did you look at the shells of the snails on the page that Kurt linked to?

It sounds like you have trochus snails not turbo. Turbo's have rounded shells.

 

[Fierro Nights]

well i was gypped, i should have taken that class on snails before going to the store.

i have TURBAN snails.

i dont like them. i have one in my tank and the rest in my sump, but now my tank is getting grunge in it.

i dont like them because they smoosh my polyps.

i put them on the glass, they go down, cross the sand, on to my center rock, go to the top, find a big yellow polyp and just smother it for the rest of the day, they dont eat it, they just smother it.

 

[cmor1701d]

Once they clean an area they will move on to the next area.

 

[redchick2]

I bought a friend for the "lonely" guy, and the shell looks the same, only bigger. However, the one practicing his love potion has a solid tan body and the new bigger one has tan body with green blotches in it. Are they the same, or possibly two different species? Hy husband took my camera out to do astronomy, but I will try to get pics posted of the differences.

 

[Fierro Nights]

Once they clean an area they will move on to the next area.

what, my polyps are dirty? i clean them personally.

 

[redchick2]

The first baby snails are starting to show up on the glass. The lonely guy must be a hermaphadite.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

While I'm no expert on snail development, it seems a bit early to be seeing babies from that spawn less than a week ago. I'd guess you're just seeing hitchikers, or snails that were there already that you never noticed because you weren't looking for tiny snails! But either way... congrats!

(And I don't think snails are hermaphrodites. Shrimp... yes. Snails... don't think so.)

 

[redchick2]

Maybe so, but not sure where they would have come from. They are about the size of a fine grain of sand, but you can just make out the conical shell and the little foot. I've had him a couple of months, and added a new one recently. Maybe there were tiny ones attached to someones shell?

 

[Fierro Nights]

ive heard of a snail looking bug that hitch hike on the shell of some snails, its a tiny parasite which may be a species specific in killing the snail it was on.

 

[cmor1701d]

Can you post a pic of the baby snails?