Olive snail VS Babylonia Spiratus ???

[lildraken]

Okay so I make the common mistake of buying something without researching it. Yesterday I bought 2 babylonia spiratus snails sold as "spotted Turbo snails" and an Olive snail. I bought them because they looked cool and needed something to stir up the sand. All three are hiding in the sand along with 3 sand sifting stars. Since i've read that the 3 snails I have are somewhat preditory , does that mean I should separate them? and does that mean I should say goodbye to my astrea snails? please help!

Can't they all just get along?

 

[cloak]

Horrible realty but, let nature take it's course?

Always fun to watch...

 

[pagojoe]

Well, it will be interesting to see how it plays out. Large Astraea snails are less vulnerable than a lot of other species, at least to predation by the Olive snail. I don't think the Babylonia snails will automatically kill the Astraeas, but they might if they get hungry. The others may coexist, or they might not. The slime or saliva produced by the Babylonias contains components that paralyze the prey animals, and so does the slime from Olives, although the Olive method is to engulf and suffocate the anaesthetized animal rather than to simply paralyze the prey. Let us know how it goes.

Cheers,



Don

 

[lildraken]

so far so good

so far so good

So far all the snails are accounted for but it's only been 3 days.
3 sandsifting sea stars
2 babylonias
1 olive
1 sea cuccumber
approximately 10 astreas

I'm dying to see the olive snail "fly" in the water--
do they have a way to sense clams or other snails in their proximity or do they just emerge from the sand when hungry? I know the nassarius snails surface as soon as you drop food in the water.

 

[pagojoe]

Olives normally come up and cruise the surface, or just below the surface, with the siphon exposed. They can apparently "smell" the prey animals, as they are apt to surface right after you introduce them to the tank. The times I've seen them "fly" they were in pursuit of mobile prey, such as the small conchs. The conchs can jump, and cover a lot of distance in a short time (for a snail). It's amazing to watch the olives zoom around the tank when they are hunting, I hope you get to witness it, too. I would have never guessed they could move so fast if I hadn't kept them in my own aquarium.

Cheers,



Don

 

[lildraken]

olive snail food

olive snail food

maybe i'll video tape the hunt! so they feed mainly on conchs? that's an expensive dinner.

 

[pagojoe]

They'll scavenge on a lot of things, but the live animals that got them most excited were the small strombids, (forgoing the elevated subgenera) Strombus gibberulus, S. luhuanus, S. mutabilis, and S. microurceus. There are probably some other snails that they'd be attracted to, and I wouldn't be surprised if you got the same reaction by introducing juvenile strombids from Florida or the Caribbean.

Cheers,


Don

 

[jhildebrand]

I've had three olives in my tank for over a year. They come out when there's food in the water - they can sense it. Very cool to watch how fast they can go. I have a large mix of astrea, turbo, and limpets, and they aren't ever bothered by them. All inverts over this time period have all stayed accounted for, so I'd say that at least those are fairly safe. They do a great job turning up the sand. Neat critters and very interesting as far as snails go!

 

[lildraken]

olive snail ate

olive snail ate

Thanks everyone for the replies.
this morning I discovered that one of my new tomato clowns didn't make it past the acclimation and died. I was fortunate enough to witness my olive snail emerge from the sand and totally engulfed a 1 inch long tomato clown carcass. Sad but neat at the same time!