Snails; the other, other, other white meat....

So I had planned this to happen, but am really stoked to actually see it

I had found a couple local seafood markets that carry live coldwater snails for about $3 a pound so I had knew that I had a viable source of food for my starfish other than clams and mussels.

The bonus multi use part of the whole thing is that the snails eliminate what little algae does occur in the tank, the provide a moving target for a food source, and when they are eaten they provide a nice new clean home for my hermit crabs that are scavenging off the left over food in the tank.

I took a video of the tank last night showing one of my new starfish attacking a snail, I'll try and get it uploaded soon.

I too have seen these snails. I need to see if they are native. So far my tank has only local inhabitants. 1/4 mile, as the crow flies.

But I have lost all of my snails to the clingfish. I also don't want things to eat all wanted red algae sprouting around the tank.

Its okay mike thatll change when your having to prune every week

Started thinking about how my tank setups can benefit from each other and realized that the new system with the autofeeder should easily support some colonies of mussels. Those mussels in turn help keep the water filtered, and as they grow I can thin them out by using them as a food source for the large tank with the starfish.

I will likely house snails in the sump and feed them to the display tank when needed.

So long as my fish eat them faster than they can reproduce in the display tank, the algae I want should be fine. I hope.

And I can think of things worse than having to trim red algae every week