??? Olive Snail ???
- Thread starter Larah
- Start date
demonsp
In Memoriam
pagojoe
Team RC
Hey Larah,
Olive snails are cool. They are pretty. They are sleek. They can fly (sort of). They hide a lot. They are good scavengers. And they will attack prey up to about THREE TIMES their own size, and with any luck, will kill things almost that big. I kept several different species, but my best story is about Oliva sericea. (I usually tell the abridged version, but I'll give you the longer version.) I brought one home and threw him in the tank, and he immediately went underground. I didn't see him again for weeks, and decided he wasn't going to make a very exciting tank resident. Eventually, I brought home a bunch of conchs and dropped them in the tank, which changed things a little. That night, after I had turned out the light, I started hearing "plink, plink-plink, plink...plinkplinkplink..." and thought, what the heck is going on in my tank. I went over and looked, and everything in the tank was in panic mode. All of the small conchs, Strombus gibberulus, Strombus mutabilis, and Strombus luhuanus (which were bigger than the olive) were all jumping and bouncing off the tank walls. The fish were swimming rapid circles, and there on the bottom was the Oliva sericea, "flapping" the sides of his foot and flying?, not crawling, around the tank. If I gave a speed estimate, I'd say he was moving about ten times as fast as an olive normally crawls, maybe more. I watched him curl the front of his foot, and grab a big Strombus luhuanus, lifting it above his shell, then humped over and tried to stuff it into the pocket formed by the slit down the bottom of his foot. The big conch managed to kick loose, and the olive resumed chasing the smaller ones until he caught one, engulfed it, and dove underground. A few minutes later, the conch resurfaced, apparently unharmed, and the olive came back out and caught another one, and this time he didn't resurface. It took a few days, but he eventually killed and ate every conch in my tank. He was a killing machine, until my Conus textile caught him and ate him.
I don't know how the ones from Florida compare, but I suspect they might be pretty effective killers, too? The smaller species might be less of a threat.
Cheers,
Don
Olive snails are cool. They are pretty. They are sleek. They can fly (sort of). They hide a lot. They are good scavengers. And they will attack prey up to about THREE TIMES their own size, and with any luck, will kill things almost that big. I kept several different species, but my best story is about Oliva sericea. (I usually tell the abridged version, but I'll give you the longer version.) I brought one home and threw him in the tank, and he immediately went underground. I didn't see him again for weeks, and decided he wasn't going to make a very exciting tank resident. Eventually, I brought home a bunch of conchs and dropped them in the tank, which changed things a little. That night, after I had turned out the light, I started hearing "plink, plink-plink, plink...plinkplinkplink..." and thought, what the heck is going on in my tank. I went over and looked, and everything in the tank was in panic mode. All of the small conchs, Strombus gibberulus, Strombus mutabilis, and Strombus luhuanus (which were bigger than the olive) were all jumping and bouncing off the tank walls. The fish were swimming rapid circles, and there on the bottom was the Oliva sericea, "flapping" the sides of his foot and flying?, not crawling, around the tank. If I gave a speed estimate, I'd say he was moving about ten times as fast as an olive normally crawls, maybe more. I watched him curl the front of his foot, and grab a big Strombus luhuanus, lifting it above his shell, then humped over and tried to stuff it into the pocket formed by the slit down the bottom of his foot. The big conch managed to kick loose, and the olive resumed chasing the smaller ones until he caught one, engulfed it, and dove underground. A few minutes later, the conch resurfaced, apparently unharmed, and the olive came back out and caught another one, and this time he didn't resurface. It took a few days, but he eventually killed and ate every conch in my tank. He was a killing machine, until my Conus textile caught him and ate him.
I don't know how the ones from Florida compare, but I suspect they might be pretty effective killers, too? The smaller species might be less of a threat.
Cheers,
Don
Larah
New member
Cheer??? Hmmmm... I dunno how cheery I feel now 
I 'spose I need to find his eating machine arse and get him back
to the LFS... He is currently under the sand, but the tanks only 50 gallons so I'm sure I'll find him.... I assume he won't heat the Margarita and Astrea and turbo's? Since they're not on the "ground"? Or am I assuming wrong?
I'm sure the nassirus snails (two tiny ones) are toast........
I 'spose I need to find his eating machine arse and get him back
to the LFS... He is currently under the sand, but the tanks only 50 gallons so I'm sure I'll find him.... I assume he won't heat the Margarita and Astrea and turbo's? Since they're not on the "ground"? Or am I assuming wrong?
I'm sure the nassirus snails (two tiny ones) are toast........
I have one....!!
I got him in the summer of '06 off the coast of Destin, FL. I went snorkeling off the beach w/ my daughter and this is what I found. I threw him in my 35g hex which was housing seahorses at the time. He never came out for the longest time, thought he was dead. But he finally came out and would eat the leftovers from the Seahorses mess. Just like pago said....they fly!! everything get out of the way.
he's really cool. I love mine. I still have nasarrius snails, the olive doesnt' bother them I don't think. I have lots of crabs too that are still alive. Just get some mysis cubes and throw in there every now and then to keep him happy and full
I got him in the summer of '06 off the coast of Destin, FL. I went snorkeling off the beach w/ my daughter and this is what I found. I threw him in my 35g hex which was housing seahorses at the time. He never came out for the longest time, thought he was dead. But he finally came out and would eat the leftovers from the Seahorses mess. Just like pago said....they fly!! everything get out of the way.
he's really cool. I love mine. I still have nasarrius snails, the olive doesnt' bother them I don't think. I have lots of crabs too that are still alive. Just get some mysis cubes and throw in there every now and then to keep him happy and full
Similar threads
