Astraea Snail
A turbo-charged glass and rock grazer — the gold standard for green film algae.
The best-selling algae snail in the hobby for good reason: astraea snails demolish green film algae and diatoms on glass, rock, and the aquarium walls at an impressive pace. Completely reef safe and peaceful. The one quirk — they occasionally fall and land upside down, so an occasional flip on your part keeps them going.
What it needs to thrive
- Lighting
- Any standard reef lighting — no special requirements.
- Flow
- Moderate reef flow with calm resting zones.
- Feeding
- Grazer — green film algae, diatoms, and supplemental algae sheets in clean tanks.
- Temperament
- Completely peaceful and reef safe.
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- Ideal Tank Size
- 5 gallons and up, fully cycled.
- Water Parameters
- 76–80°F · salinity 1.024–1.026 SG · pH 8.1–8.4 · 0 ammonia / 0 nitrite · nitrate under 10 ppm
Glass, rockwork, and walls. Stock roughly 1 per 5 gallons for heavy algae loads.
Completely peaceful and reef safe.
Quarantine, dip, and acclimation
Quarantine
Hold all new fish in a bare-bottom 10–20 gallon QT for a minimum of 4 weeks. Observe for flashing, clamped fins, white spots, or breathing changes. Treat preventatively with copper (1.75–2.5 ppm chelated) or tank-transfer method for ich, plus a praziquantel course for flukes. Invertebrates and corals skip QT but go through dip and observation instead.
Recommended coral dip
For every new coral: a 5–10 minute bath in your reef-safe dip of choice (Bayer Complete, CoralRx, or Reef Primer) following label dosage, followed by two clean saltwater rinses. Inspect plugs and bases for flatworms, pyramid snails, and eggs — remove or refrag onto clean plugs before placing in display.
Acclimation
Float sealed bags in your QT or display for 15 minutes to match temperature. Then drip acclimate at 2–4 drops per second for 45–60 minutes until volume has tripled. Net livestock into the tank — never pour shipping water in. Dim the lights for the first 24 hours to reduce stress.