Astrea snails - The circle of Dying and buying

Is anyone else tired of always spending more money buying Astrea snails for our tanks only to keep finding empty shells lying around days, weeks and months later. Yes they eat algae but if you have your tank setup in a working manner that actually keeps low enough nitrates and phosphates you shouldn't have enough algae to justify buying tons of snails. Let alone buying the one snail per gallon of tank that most stores recommend. I see astrea snails as a way for stores to make easy money. Instead of selling types of trochus snails that can almost always flip themselves over, many stores choose to sell the cheaper more common astrea snails which have a low survival rate leaving us hobbyists left to come back and buy even more Astrea snails which only keeps the cycle of dying and buying going even longer. Some trochus snails do get large, most stay a similar size to astrea snails. The red banded trochus snails are an awesome snail to have in a reef tank. They have no problem crossing the sand and rarely get in a place where they have trouble righting themselves. They cost around $2.50 a snail at most stores and even on Liveaquaria.com. It sounds like a lot of money for a snail, but when you figure that each astrea snail will cost anywhere from $.60 all the way up to $2.00 per snail. Multiply the cost of each astrea times how many your going to have to replace every few months or so and it ends up not seeming so bad to spend more on a trochus snail that will outlast most astrea snails by years. For anyone interested in buying the banded trochus snails locally, Deep Sea Creations has them from time to time and can order them as well. LiveAquaria.com has them for sale as well.

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