tiny snails

[the marine apprentice]

well i was looking at my rock work tonight when i got home from calgary, my lights were all off and i see that there is like a million tiny snails all over my rock. is this a bad thing or a good thing??? and if it is bad does anyone know of a way to get rid of them??
thanks in advance
terry

[tlo]

most likely colinista snails - good little hitch hikers

[fkshiu]

They're pods and other nocturnal invertebrates and they're good, very good.

You might as well flush your tank down the toilet if you get rid of them. They are a vital part of the reef food chain.

[the marine apprentice]

ok sweet. cuz there are soooo many of them. and i havent seen them until just the other day and i have had this tank up and running for 7ish months now

[Eb0la11]

Ive got a lot of these guys too. Are they shell-less snails? Mine are kind of like slugs.

I also have been contemplating getting a mandarin and I know its best not to introduce one until at least 6 months, but I have a ton of these snails and pods too and Im only 3 months in.

Anyone have more input on that? Do mandarins eat these snails along with pods?

[gobytron]

Nerites and stomatella by the sounds of things...
Stomatella are the half shell slug looking kind and nerites are the small traditional snails.
There are some predatory tiny snails, like sundial snails, so watch what they are crawling on and look for damage.

If you have the detrimental variety, it will become apparent very soon.

i have alot of the stomatella some brown, a jet black one and some mother of pearl they are quite nice looking to bad they don't come out much when the lights are on. My carpet Nem gets one now and then. The largest one is about 1 inch long that is the shell. They are great grazers.

Bill

[the marine apprentice]

i have the ones with the pearly looking backs and they are awesome help to keep algea down. but the ones i have are like maybe a mm to 2mm long and there are thousands of them dont seem to be causeing any damage but i want to make sure

[gobytron]

If you had that many and they were detrimental to anything, you would notice pretty quick.
Probably nerites
Click on their name for a great article about them by Julian Sprung.

[Snappy]

Terry, Over the course of the next year you will likely encounter all kinds of things in your reef that you haven't seen yet that only come out at night. Keep your flashlight handy and have fun discovering a whole new world. This takes me back to when I started and spent many a late night fascinated with the live rock coming to life. Welcome to the wonderful world of Salt Water.

Eb0la11 -Anyone have more input on that? Do mandarins eat these snails along with pods?

I think it unlikely they will eat the snails and as hard as it is to be patient I would wait. Mandarins can sometimes be trained to eat frozen but it is not an easy task, I've never had luck with it. You may have what seems like a lot of pods however mandarins are prone to eat the pod larvae more than the actual pods so this is one of the reasons you need a well established reef. You need enough pods to keep up the population despite loosing a high rate of their offspring.