- Common Name:- Humpback Conch
- Latin Name:- Strombus gibberulus
- Final Size:- Up to 7cm
- Purchase Size:- Approx 5-6cm
- Diet: - Algae, detrirus, uneaten foods
- Aquarium Size:- 200 litres+
- Water Parameters:- SG 1.023 - 1.026, pH 8.1 - 8.4, Nitrite 0, Ammonia 0, Will not tolerate Copper
- Compatibility:- Coral Safe
- Top Tips:- Fantastic for keeping sand clean in aquarius
Humpback Conch are an extremely peaceful species of sand sifting snail. They use operculum (shell opening cover) to scoot themselves along the sand a bit like an oar in a boat meaning they are best kept in aquariums with gravel around 3mm in size. They are harmless and make a great, easy to care for addition to medium sized aquariums where they will do an excellent job of turning over the sand and cleaning up. They are collected from the Indo pacific and dont tend to be widely available in the UK as aquarists gravitate towards the more well known Orange Lip Conch. For aquariums of 200 litres of more Humpback Conch are a better choice as they are large in size and will get much more work done than an Orange Lip could. They are a fantastic species to have in groups to tackle all sorts of issues, they present no risks and are long lived.
Diet
Humpback Conch as with all conch will eat a wide range of algae species as well as eating detritus and left over food. They will clean your glass and rockwork as well as burrowing into the sand and keeping that clean too! It is essential to supplement their natural grazing especially if the amount of live algae available to them is slim. Algae based pellets or grazing blocks work perfectly for all Conch Snails as a supplemental food.
Compatibility
Humpback Conch do not eat corals or other sessile invertebrates meaning they are classified as reef safe. They are extremely peaceful and the only risk of adding them is that one of their tank mates may eat them. To avoid this offer plenty of spare shells to hermit crabs or avoid keeping them together and do not add with known snail eating fish / shrimp species.
