Mexican Turbo's Q

[vinny]

I have a few of these guys but one of them is Ginormous about the size of a racketball if not bigger.Anyways i'm watching it eat a large portion of hair alge and it ate my only bright pink sponge that was the size of a dime is this normal?

[ChemDumb]

By normal, I'm assuming you're asking about the sponge being eaten, not the hair algae. The answer is yes (to both).

The bigger they get the more destructive they get. Good news is, though, they will clean up so much hair algae it isn't even funny. Bad news is, they can get to be the size of a medium sized fist. They will plow through anything that's in their way and they are not usually found in water temps in the 80's (generally they live in water from 75-78) so it won't live as long in your reef tank as it would in the wild.

Hope that helped

Lou

[tangkeeper]

just came back from jamaica,I saw whole bunch of this guys that are claiming rocks in low high tie areas and basicaly baking under the son w/o problem

[vinny]

My qusetion was really about the snail eating my sponge,i'm glad it's eating the hair alge.But my tank has reached 81 and that's when I have my lights shut off.

[susyq458]

Yes, they eat sponge. I got a few turbos a while back and now that they are all dead, the sponges have regrown in my 29 tank.

Turbos are amazing cleaners but we've never had any that live longer than a few months. We had one that was huge like the one you describe. It was in the display tank and it was great to watch this huge shell troll the tank. It clipped the tips of some of the more delicate corals with it's shel but it didn't ruin anything major. Sadly it and it's slightly smaller companion both died and made excellent feasting for the crabs which seem to NEVER die.

[ChemDumb]

just came back from jamaica,I saw whole bunch of this guys that are claiming rocks in low high tie areas and basicaly baking under the son w/o problem

Were they mexican turbos or some other form of turbo? There are several different varieties of turbos and from what I've always understood, they are found in slightly cooler water than ours tanks are kept at and the warmer water in our systems increases their metabolism and they die off sooner than in wild, but I could be wrong.

Lou

[steevareno]

My turbos die after a week!!! My temp gets up to 83. Could it be that?

[chunky_lover52]

most likely......certain species of turbo (mexican) like low to mid 70's....higher temps cause raised metabolisms....they actually cook themselves

[steevareno]

o jeez, nasty. So i should wait till the cooler months to add any more :eek:

[reefsmurf]

Hrm.. maybe that's why my turbos don't last more than 2 weeks.

What's the max temp these guys can adapt to?