Nassarius Snails dead?

[jd371]

I started with 4 of them a month and a half ago. A few weeks ago I found one of them dead when I was moving some rock around. Whenever I fed the tank the remaining three would pop out of the sand. Recently only one of them has been coming out when I feed and I haven't seen the other two in days, even during the night I don't see them anymore.
I'm worried that they died somewhere buried under the sand and are starting to decompose and get all funky. Should I dig up the 2"-3" sb to look for them or just leave them. I test the water every week and on Monday the Ammonia was at 0.
I have a 75gal that's 3 months old, including the Nassarius I have, 3 Turbos, cleaner shrimp, Fire Fish and soon to be adding a Royal Gramma from the QT. I was feeding a little more for the one fish that's in the tank, so I don't think they starved.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

No don't dig up your sand looking for them. You'll spike the nitrates really badly if you do.

I would try watching for them at night as that's when they're most active. But it's strange that only the nassarius snails are dying, so it's not something in your water killing them or you would have lost other snails,

 

[lonbrat]

^^^ agreed-

Also, I think it's kinda hard to kill them- of course to an extent, they are pretty hardy.
I had a 10 gal. That I put a few in forever ago. When I upgraded a few months ago I left it running and just a few days ago I found one cursing around the bottom lol...

So I don't think they died unless something is wrong with your water ^^

 

[bruindave]

i think the same thing happened to mine.... no other snails died except for them. i see their shells too, so well I know they're dead. I don't have the same guessing game. My only thought was perhaps they didn't have enough to eat?

I had 5 of them in a 28 gallon tank. But I had like 30 other dwarf ceriths, 5 trochus, 6 nerites, and 6 florida cerith. i didn't ask for that many snails... but that's reefcleaners for you. do they need actual meaty foods or fish waste? I only had 1 fish in my tank for a few months.

 

[Starrhmsp]

Do you have crabs as well? I notice my crabs have been eating a lot of my snails

 

[Deftones2015]

If you have crabs, they will kill the snails for their shell. Also, I wouldn't worry about sifting through your sand, if you have another nassarius chances are he has ate them already. Also, if you have bristle worms they will chow down on the dead snails. Chances are though, they didn't get enough food. My problem with nassarius snails, which I like them for clean up crew, is they're slower and with heavy flow that brings any food or things like that into the water column and into the sump for filtration, they don't have a chance to get to the food. At least that's what I have noticed in my tanks.

 

[Reef Frog]

^ I've observed the same thing. If you've ever seen how fast they can strip the flesh off of a dead fish, you'll see they can eat quite a lot at once, but usually get out-competed in many tanks by the fish, shrimp, hermits & bristleworms. I target feed mine when I feed mysis to my NPS polyps & LPS with a turkey baster with pumps off. I do this maybe 2 to 4 times per month.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

The only hermit to get IME and IMO is the scarlet legged. The blue legged murder for the fun of it. Just ask all of mine living in the sump. Oh and my Emerald crab is down there too with them for eating fish. :hammer:

 

[jd371]

I just fed the Firefish and the bigger of the 3 Nassarius came out like he usually does, and I did notice one of those tubes sticking out of the sand in the back corner of the tank that wasn't there yesterday. Still no sign of the third one. They all used to make an appearance when I fed my fish, now just the big guy comes out.
I feed the Firefish frozen live food, but he doesn't touch the pellets. I still add a few pellets anyway because they sink to the sand for the snails.

 

[stingeragent]

I'll agree they can "dissapear" for months at a time. Also wouldn't worry too much about decomposing if they are indeed dead. I've lost a fish or two that I couldn't reach where they ended up without moving lots of rock. Next morning, theres no trace a fish ever died there.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Mine will eat NLS pellets. I've got 6 of the small ones and two of the Tonga Nassarius they're HUGE over 2" in length