Nassarius snail

[Mighty Quinn]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6993407#post6993407 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Brock Fluharty
I didn't mean you needed 5 of any type of clean up crew per gallon.

Well, since I am a "mere" reefer, how DO you tell them apart? I would appreciate it, Javeo, if you would STOP insulting my intelligence!

Brock,

I don't think that anyone meant to insult anyone else's intelligence here. I think that Javeo was simply implying that we are all "mere" reefers, and that it often takes a skilled marine biologist to distinguish between these animals. Also, I am afraid that I may be responsible for turning this thread in a negative direction. Please accept my apologies.

So, let me try to get this going in a more constructive, positive direction.

I am surprised at the number of nassarius in your tank. I was also confused by the following statements:

"Mine eat cyano, and hair algae."
and
"I feed them mysis shrimp, which they love."

I admit that I had a difficult time reconciling these statements until you offered the information that you had purchased 2 different varieties of snails.

ReefRicks suggested that you may have Illyanassa obsoleta, which does indeed look a lot like a nassarius: see here.

Unfortunately, Illyanassa obsoleta is not a desirable snail for reef aquariums. These snails are predatory and can do a lot of damage to your sand bed fauna population. Run a search for Illyanassa obsoleta in this forum for more information.

Brock, nassarius snails are fine animals to have in a reef aquarium and they can be beneficial scavengers (see here), but not at the numbers that you have in your tank. The person that sold these to you has given you bad information. You can certainly keep them alive by feeding a lot of meaty food, but you are going to have a heck of a problem with nutrients and subsequent algae/cyano growth. If it were me, I would pull all but 10 of these guys and trade them in for something else.

In my opinion, your tank is setup for a major fall. Whether you have all nassarius or a mix of nassarius and Illyanassa obsoleta, I think that you are going to have long term issues with keeping a viable population of these animals. Your comments regarding the rapid growth of hair algae and cyanobacteria are certainly consistent with a situation where the nutrient exports are not keeping up with nutrient imports.

I am speaking from experience here. I too ended up with an overabundance of nassarius snails in my tank. About six months after I setup my tank I purchased 10 lbs of live sand from Bill's Reef. He has great aquacultured sand, but it came absolutely loaded with nassarius snails. I think that I had about 20 in my 25 gallon tank. Over the course of the next year most of them died and I was blessed with major algae/cyano outbreaks. I had two nassarius that made it about 15 months, but they eventually died as well.

I could be totally wrong here, it certainly would not be the first time.

And finally, a big KUDOS to you getting into this hobby at such a young age! You are doing FAR, FAR better than I was when I started this in college. You are also FAR better informed than I was. I am looking forward to your contributions to the group.

Best,
Q

 

[Brock Fluharty]

Thanks for the apologies, and I am sorry too. I bought them from someone here on RC, along with several other people. I tink there were about 20 people that bought them. They do look like the Illyanassa obsoleta, but the shell color is wrong. Maybe that has nothing to do with it, I don't know. I will try to describe mine as best as I can, but I have a tank full of corals, invertebrates, ect. I just cannot keep fish alive. The snails never venture onto the rockwork, save maybe one or two trying to get to the glass, and they never go anywhere near my corals. The corlas I have are all softies, and most of them are polyp-type corals. I feed them mysis shrimp, and I THINK they eat it. They seem to smell it, and stick their tubes out of the sand bed, and then they start crawling around like mad, but I don't think i've ever actually seen a snail actually eating the mysis...meaning i've never seen one with a piece of mysis sticking out of it's mouth or anything. For what it's worth, they seem much more active in my 80*F reef, as opposed to my 65*F capensis seahorse tank. I also put a few in my new octopus tank, which is still cycling, (I know, I shouldn't use live animals to cycle...bad morale...yadayadayada), which is 75*F, and they seem more active as well, which could lead to the conclusion that they are a warm water species.

Thanks! Saltwwater tanks are not easy for us younger folk, since we do not work, and do not actually have a steady flow of cash, but I seem to manage my reef, seahorse tank, octopus tank, and several others that actually total 9 tanks. Lol. I'm actually starting to wane off of reef, and into more difficult types of animals, such as seahorses, octopus, mantis shrimp, cuttlefish, ect.

Brock

P.S. When I get my octo, I know what i'll be feeding it...*glances at snails in reef tank*

 

[baruchbl]

I want to ask you guys how long the Nassarius snail lived in your reef aquarium. I am trying to know do this snails can live in our tanks for long time.

 

[Javeo]

Brock I do apologise if I came over that way, I was in no way trying to insult your intelligence, in fact I meant what Mighty Quinn said, we are all mere reefers and I was pointing out that theres not really any way to give you a positive ID through a description.
I think Quinn said most everything on the subject that you need to be aware of, however I will add that most "cold blooded" animals (exotherms) will be more active at higher temperatures regardless of their origin, but it will shorten the lives of temperate species like I. obsoleta, i know this from my own mistake of buying 4 of these and watching them die off over the course of a month despite target feeding them. YES i target fed snails!!

 

[Javeo]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6998465#post6998465 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by baruchbl
I want to ask you guys how long the Nassarius snail lived in your reef aquarium. I am trying to know do this snails can live in our tanks for long time.

Tropical species, given adequet food should live upto at least 10 years, unfortunatly few ever do.