olive snails and microfauna

[notsofishy]

well I finnally went to the lfs to get some nassarius snails and once I got home noticed that i got 1 fighting conch 3 olive snails and 1 single nassarius snail. Anyways after a little research I decided that i want to keep the fighting conch however I wanted to ask.

How hard are olive snails on microfauna?

 

[pagojoe]

Not as hard as they are on the macrofauna.

 

[notsofishy]

what classifies micro or macrofauna?

 

[pagojoe]

Olive snails may attack, and kill, animals larger than their own shell...but not much larger. They grab the prey animals with the front of the foot, then arch downward, stuffing the prey (shell and all, usually) into the slit in the bottom of the foot. Sometimes the animals escape, but usually they are either smothered or anaesthetized and then eaten by the olive. It's pretty fascinating to watch them catch live prey.

Cheers,



Don

 

[notsofishy]

hmmm well considering that these guys shells are bigger than some of my fish thats a little scary. Do they typpically hunt like this or are they primarily scavengers? Thanks for all the great info by the way.

 

[pagojoe]

I had always heard, and had assumed, that olives were scavengers. That changed after I kept several species in my aquarium. They only killed other snails, even though they would eat dead fish, and seemed to prefer conchs. They wiped out all the Strombus gibberulus gibbosus and Strombus mutabilis in my tank in a couple of days. They also managed to kill and eat a Strombus luhuanus that was almost 3 inches long. So... they may be primarily scavengers, but they are also very capable predators. They can be a lot quicker than they appear when they are cruising around the tank, too.

Cheers,



Don

 

[NanoReefWanabe]

Re: olive snails and microfauna

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12665383#post12665383 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by notsofishy
well I finnally went to the lfs to get some nassarius snails and once I got home noticed that i got 1 fighting conch 3 olive snails and 1 single nassarius snail. Anyways after a little research I decided that i want to keep the fighting conch however I wanted to ask.

How hard are olive snails on microfauna?

how on earth did you end up with three completely different looking snails and not notice...LOL

Olive snails are so cool looking though...i never kept any but i couldn't help but laugh when i read your post..

thanks....after busting out on back to back pocket aces i needed that tonight..

got any pics of your new arrivals?

i used to have a crown conch that i bought mislabled as a fighting conch..my zebra legged hermit took care of him though..

 

[notsofishy]

yea the brown paper bag made it a little hard to recogonize only thing that kind of gave it away was the snapping from the fighting conch on the way home
And sorry no pics I already took back the olive snails the conch is still in there somewhere if you want a pic of that.