While watching the clean up crew in the frag tank the other night, I noticed a couple of medium sized Stomatella snails grazing on algae. These have always been one of my favorite snails, but I was actually surprised to see these snails in the tank. All of the sand and rock that I added to the tank were dry, which means the snails had to have hitch hiked in on a frag. What’s even more surprising is all of the frags were pre-dipped in a Lugol’s iodine solution prior to being introduced into the aquarium. Regardless, the snails are there and I couldn’t be happier about it.
Snails from the Stomatella genus are very popular among aquarium keepers who know about them. The snails are lacking a traditional shell. Instead, they have a flat and elongated shell. This unusual appearance and the fact that they hitch hike in on various things stirs up concerns with aquarium keepers who aren’t familiar with the snail. Always afraid of pests, the hobbyist jumps on their local forums full of questions and concerns. Keeping all of these concerns in mind, I decided to video these snails doing what they do best…consuming algae in our aquariums. The video was shot at night because the Stomatellas are mostly nocturnal, and has been sped up 2x because they move rather slowly.
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