Crazy climbing tiger conchs

Do your Tiger Conchs climb the walls of your tank? I have two tanks and have seen Conchs climbing in both. I am curious about this as mine climb the walls of the tanks and climb on all the rock. A friend of mine says his do not even get on top of the rock.

 

Hi Pavelow,

This is the third post about "Tiger Conchs" but I haven't yet been able to figure out what species that is, since nobody ever posts a pic of one. There is no official or unofficial shell named a "Tiger Conch," so I can only guess that some retailer has "named" their snails that. Can you post a pic of yours? I can potentially answer your question if I can figure out which species you have. The general answer is: true conchs only have the ability to climb when they are small juveniles. There are a lot of other snails that aren't conchs that can climb no matter how big they get.

Thanks, and cheers,



Don

 

here are the ones in my QT, I have seen both next to each other on the glass. i do not have any pix of the bigger ones on the glass in my DT, they climb as well and are much bigger

 

Thanks for the pics. Those are Strombus (Conomurex) luhuanus, also known as a Strawberry Conch or a Red-Mouthed Conch (I guess neither of which is as "sexy" as Tiger Conch LOL). They do climb as juveniles, and yours are almost adults. I've never seen them climb once they are fully adult, but since yours are almost in that category, maybe they will still retain some ability to climb. I've had several over the years, and once they developed the thickened outer lip and strombid notch, they no longer climbed the glass.

Cheers,



Don

 

Okay, here are the bigger ones in my 16 gallon, every now and then, they will climb the wall...

 

That's interesting. It's the same species, but that one is an adult. My big ones never climbed the walls...I wonder if he's trying to reach the algae growing there, or if the algae is giving him "traction" on the glass. The ones I had would actually tug at and eat macroalgae, although it looks like that one may be interested in the microalgae growing on the sides.

Cheers,



Don

 

I don't know if it is getting help with the algae but it is holding on with its suction device and yes, it is grazing on the algae on the wall. My only fear is these guys falling and tapping the glass in the right way and causing it to shatter. I have seen them fall from the rock and heard them hit the glass. I can't imagine they are hitting the glass hard, but I don't want that rare instance to happen to me...lol...sigh