Nassarius snails are they safe?

[dan223]

Ive seen mixed views on them esp with clams whats your experiences? Any way to be sure they are safe, like the big whiteish tonga ones?

 

[acrodave]

yes they are fine they only eat dead things.. so if they do eat your calm it means there was something wrong with it

 

[Dooly]

my nass snails killed/ate 3 maximas in a week, I witnessed them eating them from the foot upwards into the shell since the clams were on the sandbed.. since then I've gotten rid of the snails, and only kept clams with rock underneath them

 

[t4zalews]

dooly, sounds like you have welks..not nass snails. Welks eat healthy clams, nass eat dead clams

 

[Dooly]

they were definitely nassarius snails, had a couple people confirm, and have heard of other nass snails eating healthy clams too if they were really hungry

 

[dan223]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Haha, this is exactly what Im talking about, Yes they are. No there not. Who else can vouch, esp people who keep both.

 

[Rrrf_Grrl]

yeah, he said she said, i say nassarius snails are totally safe and only eat dead things. pyramid snails eat live clams for sure. long time keeper of nassarius with no problems whatsoever, including clams.

 

[Dooly]

thats what I thought too until my "reef safe" snails killed my clams and ate them from the bottom up, how can anyone tell me it's not true when I witnessed it with my own eyes.. LOL

 

[wschang812]

haha. you got some crazy nass. snails. no problems with my snails and my clam so far. been 1 year since they have been together

 

[dsmooth]

One of my nassarius snails did some thing similar, but the others kept away from my Clam. So I took the nass out and banished him to my sump. That was 2 months ago. The other nass does not bother my clam.

 

[jyuen]

i have nassaris with 3 of my clams and they all are doing well.

 

[Jeff]

I have around 50 nassarius snails and 5 clams with no problems. I have a feeling those that had problems had a species of snails that wasnt true florida nassarius snails.

 

[UWUALineman]

Has been noted in previous threads that some snails are being advertised on eBay an some other vendors of being tue Nass. snails however, they are not. I have at least 40-50 in my substrate with no problems at all with the Maxima.

 

[pagojoe]

There have been some clams killed by Nassarius. I can tell the difference between whelks and Nassarius, by the way. I've never heard of a clam being killed by Nassarius vibex. The ones that get accused seem to always be either Nassarius arcularius or Nassarius coronatus, i.e., the big ones. HEAR YE, HEAR YE: just because someone published that all Nassarius will absolutely not eat anything that isn't dead or dying does not make it true.

Cheers,



Don

 

[dan223]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15268685#post15268685 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pagojoe
. I can tell the difference between whelks and Nassarius, by the way.


Don

How? Ive seen alot of variation in shell shape and colors within the same type.

 

[pagojoe]

If you are familiar with the species, most of them don't look that much alike. Snails in the genus Nassarius almost all have circular apertures, a very short siphonal canal, and a parietal ridge on the columella at the top of the aperture (if the shell is held spire up) forming a pronounced anal sulcus. The circular appearance may be modified by the labral denticles, sulcus, and/or the columellar shield, but the actual apertures are very near circular, and the opercula are round or almost round as well. The opercula are usually thin, transparent amber discs or ovals. When the operculum is still attached to the animal, it usually appears to have a darker squarish or trapezoidal area in the middle, although most of the coloration is actually on the foot, rather than the operculum itself.

http://www.gastropods.com/Taxon_pages/TN_Family_NASSARIIDAE_NASSARIINAE.shtml

There are a few that don't totally conform to these standards. You might expect the ones with different-looking apertures not to be as closely related as the others, that their behavior might not be the same, and that some of them may very well belong in a genus other than Nassarius:

http://www.gastropods.com/5/Shell_29215.shtml
http://www.gastropods.com/0/Shell_3300.shtml

Some true buccinids look very much like Nassarius species, and in fact, some were once lumped together with them. These include the Nassaria species, which differ by having something of a siphonal canal, even if it's short:

http://www.gastropods.com/4/Shell_3194.shtml
http://www.gastropods.com/1/Shell_55771.shtml
http://www.gastropods.com/5/Shell_55775.shtml

The buccinids that look most like Nassarius are probably the Phos species. However, the apertures are generally rhomboidal rather than round, and the opercula are very different, conforming to the shape of the aperture, and most are dark and thick even though some are similar in color to those of the Nassarius species (opercula shown in several of the shells below):

http://www.gastropods.com/9/Shell_1279.shtml
http://www.gastropods.com/7/Shell_57097.shtml
http://www.gastropods.com/0/Shell_4770.shtml
http://www.gastropods.com/4/Shell_9704.shtml

On the bright side, I've never seen either a Nassaria or Phos species show up as a hitchhiker. The ones that seem to get confused over and over by aquarists are the Cantharus or Pollia species, or others in the buccinid subfamily Pisaniinae:

http://www.gastropods.com/Taxon_pages/TN_Family_BUCCINIDAE_PISANIINAE.shtml

These show up as hitchhikers all the time, and shouldn't be that hard to separate from the nassariids. Notice that they all have a distinct siphonal canal (or "stem"), that the opercula conform to the elongated shape of the aperture (teardrop shaped), and that most of the opercula are dark and thick, and very different from the usual Nassarius opercula.

Hope these hints help. They should be more dependable than "the snorkel is grey spotted" or whatever the other "rules of thumb" are that are proliferated around the hobby.

Cheers,



Don

P.S. My new rule of thumb for you: If it has a "stem" or siphonal canal, it's not a Nassarius.

 

[darkdruid]

Over 100 nassarius snails in a 46 gallon, two clams, no problems.

 

[fishgeek12]

I hate nassarius.... they always ate my clams... I got rid of them all and now my clams live!

 

[pagojoe]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15300645#post15300645 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by darkdruid
Over 100 nassarius snails in a 46 gallon, two clams, no problems.

LOL I bet you don't have 100 Nassarius arcularius in a 46 with two clams. You probably have 100 Nassarius vibex. As I've been trying to say, not all Nassarius are created equal.

Cheers,



Don

 

[darkdruid]

I'll take that bet, and not vibex either. The plain black ones sold dirt cheap on ebay. I've had a crocea and deresa for over two years.The crocea is halfway up on the rocks and the deresa is on the sand.

http://www.atlanticseafarms.net/servlet/the-81/100-Nassarius-Snails/Detail

This is what I have.