I had planned on talking about laminar flow this blog but an important issue was brought to my attention the other night about my Beneficial Reef Aquarium Snail article.  I had a post in the article about the Ilyanassa Obsoleta snail and how it was a good detritus cleaner and scavenger.  It turns out that there is a lot of debate about these snails.

  These snails can be found on ebay, in fact there so prevalent on ebay that there are literaly dozens of pages with auctions on them.  They are extremely cheap and are found in cooler waters which makes them easy to come by, especially on the east coast. 

  I have used these snails before with a small amount of success, after all Its hard to pass up 50 saltwater snails for $20 and $5 shipping.  The auctions on ebay say that these snails do just about every thing and anything.  What they don’t tell you is that they can carry nearly 9 types of trematodes and that half of the adult snails carry at least 1 trematode.  Wonder what a trematode is? Click here.

   Know had I known this information before I purchased these snails some 4 years ago, I would not have made the purchase.  My purchase came from an ebay seller and in my hot reef tank only lasted for about 2 months.  Many other reefers claim to have success with them and continue to buy them.  But buyer beware these saltwater snails should probably be left in the mud flats where they are found with there parasite friends.

  This thread has additional information and is a “must” read if you are considering buying these snails.

  I would also like to thank John from http://www.reefcleaners.org/. For bringing this to my attention.  Check out his site he has great prices on saltwater snails and macro algae.