It looks like the Stomtella Varia are quite prolific. I thought had a pair in my "wild" 29G, which I must have, since when I looked yesterday I'm now seeing quite a few baby ones all over the tank, and in quite a few varied sizes as well. Cool little critters, not the best looking snails ever, look a bit more like a slug, but the are a hungry bunch and are definitely munch on both the rocks and glass. If this keeps up I'll be able to soon share them with others in the club. From what I'm seeing at project DIBs they are quite easy to breed. I'll probably move some over to my main tank soon as well, since they do seem to do a good job and certainly seem to be able to build their own population up.

Then tank experiment is really going wild. I haven't been scraping the glass at all in a week or two now either, and the glass is getting completely covered in little pods that live on the algae that grows on the glass. The snails are doing a decent job of trying to keep up, but can't always keep everything in check. At night the glass is covered to where there are probably a dozen or more pods in each square inch of glass now.

I'm going to keep the tank wild, and not introduce any fish to prey on anything to see how it goes. So far the pods are heavy, and the fan worms are growing quickly as well. I've been dosing with phyto to see if that helps build up any other populations as well. I'm also stocking pairs (or more) of various types of snails to see if I can get others to breed as well. So far only the Stomatella are doing much, but I may need to increase the population of the trochus and others to get things started.

Sounds like a cool project Lee.Please keep us posted.

I was up this morning at 4:30 to head to the airport (I'm in the Dallas airport right now waiting for the next flight) and took a quick look at the 29G with a flashlight. I guess adult Stomatella really like to come out at night. A good number of the juveniles are out during the day, and sometimes I catch an adult, but this morning there were a huge number out and all over the glass. And a couple were definitely larger than I had seem before at probably 3/4 inch long. They don't seem to like the light though, as soon as the flashlight hits them they head off, and can move quite quickly. Didn't have long to hang around and look, but it seems there are dozens in there at this point, in every size from larger adults to tiny ones that are barely a couple mm long. Wish some of the other snails would breed this quickly. Need to find some Collonista or Columbelid as they are both easy breeders as well. Also would like to find some of the Project DIBS turbos which are also an easy to breed variety, and look very interesting. While the Stomatella are easy to breed and seem to be hungry little buggers, they are a bit difficult to harvest as their shells are pretty fragile and can be easily damaged.

These guys are prolific. Counted on the front glass last night and at that time there were 22 from tiny to about a quarter inch long. I counted another dozen or so in other areas of the tank. Considering I only saw two adults a few weeks ago, I'm beginning to wonder how often these things spawn. And from the differences in sizes, I'm not sure if I've had one spawn or more. If this keeps up I'll have to turn off the skimmer and let the tank grow some more diatoms and algae for them to eat.

What are these guys natural preditors?

From what I've read that the larger ones don't have that much in the way of predators, but the smaller ones, and the larvae are eaten by almost any shrimp (cleaner, banded, etc.) and hermits. Which would explain why they do well in this tank and not in my main tank, as I have some scarlet hermits and a cleaner shrimp in my main tank, but my 29G has no shrimp or hermits at all. A few months ago I saw a large adult in my main tank, but I've never seen the smaller ones.