Trochus Snail

Care at a glance

Overview

A peaceful, strictly herbivorous grazer that works the rock and glass day and night eating nuisance algae. It poses no threat to corals, fish, or other inverts, and its tall shell shape makes it harder for hermit crabs to evict than flatter snails. Stock roughly one snail per 8 to 12 litres and provide enough algae or supplement with dried seaweed if the tank is very clean.

In the wild

Trochus snails come from rocky reef flats and hard substrate across the Indo-Pacific, where they graze film algae, diatoms, and cyanobacteria off rock and glass. In the tank they want a mature system with plenty of live rock to forage over and good water quality. Like most marine snails they are sensitive to high nitrate and will not tolerate copper-based medications, so drip acclimate them slowly.

Good to know

Trochus is a genus of top snails (family Trochidae) with a distinctive pyramid or top-shaped shell, often pale gray with maroon banding. Unlike the similar Astraea, most Trochus can flip themselves back upright after being knocked over, which cuts down on losses. Some hobbyists report them breeding in the tank, releasing gametes into the water column, though raising the larvae to settlement is difficult.

Did you know

Unlike its close relative the Astraea, a knocked-over Trochus can usually right itself, so it rarely starves upside down on the sand.

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• 

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