Banded Trochus Snail (Trochus maculatus) Care Guide
Trochus maculatus is a pyramidal-shelled Indo-Pacific top snail that grazes film algae, diatoms and cyanobacteria and can right itself if flipped.
Compiled by Aquairi from published sources · Published · Updated
Overview
Trochus maculatus, the maculated top shell, is a marine top snail of the family Trochidae, named by Linnaeus in 1758. It has a solid, heavy, conical shell of roughly ten whorls bearing spiral beaded lirae, marked with longitudinal stripes of brown, purplish, magenta, rose or coral red on a white, pink or olive-tinted ground. It is one of the few reef snails able to right itself after being flipped.
Taxonomy
- Family: Trochidae
- Genus: Trochus
- Scientific name: Trochus maculatus
- Authority: Linnaeus, 1758
Habitat
The species occurs in the Red Sea, across the Indo-Pacific Ocean and around Australia (Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia), where it lives on hard substrates rich in algal growth.
Tank requirements
- Minimum tank volume: 60 L
- Temperature: 24-26 °C (75-79 °F)
- pH: 8.1-8.4
- Carbonate hardness (dKH): 8-12
- Specific gravity: 1.024-1.026
- Adult shell size: 25-65 mm
- Lifespan: 2-5 years
- Plenty of live rock and glass surface for grazing
Diet
Trochus snails are strictly herbivorous and use their radula to scrape film algae, diatoms and cyanobacteria from rock and glass, ideally reaching algae at the film stage before it becomes a nuisance. They are not fond of hair algae. In newer or low-algae tanks the diet should be supplemented with algae wafers or nori.
Compatibility
This is a peaceful, reef-safe grazer that poses no threat to corals or other inhabitants. Predatory fish such as triggerfish and pufferfish will eat it and should be avoided.
Breeding
Reproduction involves a planktonic larval stage, so reliable captive breeding is impractical for the home aquarium.
Banded Trochus Snail (Trochus maculatus): Breeding Notes
Overview
Trochus maculatus is a pyramidal-shelled top snail of the family Trochidae that grazes algae and cyanobacteria from rock and glass. Trochus snails are valued algae grazers and, unlike many reef snails, can right themselves when flipped.
Sexing
Trochus snails have separate sexes that cannot be distinguished externally; in hatcheries sex is identified only when animals release eggs or sperm during induced spawning.
Conditioning
In hatchery work on commercial trochus, mature adults spawn readily on a monthly lunar cycle, and large adults are highly fecund, releasing on the order of 0.5–1 million eggs; specialised equipment is not required to induce spawning.
Spawning & Eggs/Larvae
Fertilization is external. Eggs hatch into trochophore larvae that become non-feeding (lecithotrophic) veligers; in trochus the planktonic phase is short, with hatchery settlement reached within roughly three to five days. No trochoidean veligers are known to feed.
Common Challenges
Even with a short larval phase, water movement, filtration and predation remove the planktonic veligers in a typical reef tank, so self-sustaining populations are not realistic without a dedicated rearing setup.