Can anyone explain this strange behavior of my turbo snail ‘Tabasco’? He is standing 'upright' atop of one of the highest places in my live rock. Excreting some stuff from his tube thing. He held this pose for over 10 minutes.

You can just see a wisp of stuff going into the water.

first off, that looks more like a astrea snail, not a turbo..
and what its doing is spawning.. :)

unlikely any of the larvae will survive in your DT, but it makes a great dinner for everything in the tank.. :)

that's a fantastic picture. yes have to agree it looks like it's spawning. what time of the day did it do this? a friend of mine used to have a few that went to the surface to do the same thing but that was just after lights out.

i have a few of these and they do it all times of the day..
the only things is that they all do it at the same time..
usually there will be two snails one on the others shell, in multiple locations all broadcast spawning at the same time.. cool sight to see

It was about an hour before lights out.

Thanks Rob I looked around and I think you’re about the Astrea snails. Fish shops can be pretty crap at labeling livestock.
What is DT an acronym for?

I also noticed what I believe are snail eggs on my glass. But I think these must be from my Cerith snails if the Astrea as broadcast spawners.
There is sure is a lot of snail sex going on in my tank. Hope it’s not a case of try and reproduce before you die as some plants will try and do when conditions aren’t favorable.

Here is a picture of what I believe are snail eggs they are laid in a similar pattern to what you see when the snails are eating through the diatoms on the glass. You can’t really make it out but is made up of tiny dots. I put something black behind them so the camera would focus. They are white under normal light but they are close to my actinic bulb.

Graham,

those are definitely Cerith eggs.

DT = Display Tank.

as for the confusion regarding common names, the Astrea sp. are often referred to as "turban" OR "turbo" snails, but shouldn't be confused with Turbo sp. snails, which BTW, are ALSO commonly referred to as "turban" snails...how's THAT for confusing? IMHO, the best way to avoid confusion is to refer to each snail by genus.

looks like the snail in the pic is praying to the snail Gods, thanking them for such a nice home :). defiantly spawning! awesome shot!

He was all on his own until I introduced two more last week. So I reckon he is thanking them for the ladies. :love!:

LOL probably so

Hi Graham,

If you notice blue words in a post with a little icon like a double ended arrow pause your cursor over them the definition will appear in a little box.