staten Island collecting

[trueblackpercula]

I plan on collecting local snails on Staten island does anyone have any need for them? I collected them last year for my tank and they did very well. I only added about 25 or so but this time I plan on adding 50 top 75. I forgot the name of them but they look like bumblebee snails but without the yellow. they are great for cleaning the sandbed. I can post pictures in a few let me know.

Michael

Here is a video of the site >>> http://videos.silive.com/staten-island-advance/2012/07/wolfes_pond_park_on_staten_isl.html

 

[DgenR8]

I plan on collecting local snails on Staten island does anyone have any need for them? I collected them last year for my tank and they did very well. I only added about 25 or so but this time I plan on adding 50 top 75. I forgot the name of them but they look like bumblebee snails but without the yellow. they are great for cleaning the sandbed. I can post pictures in a few let me know.

Michael

The snails you're describing are probably Nassarius. They come in a wide variety of colors, but the ones you find around here tend to be dark, pretty much all black.

 

[trueblackpercula]

Yup that's them they do a good job of cleaning.

 

[DgenR8]

They're excellent scavengers (not much for algae, but uneaten food and dead critters, for sure!) and do a great job of turning your sand bed, but don't usually handle the warmer temps of our tanks very well. You surely don't have any of the 25 you added last year still alive, do you?

 

[trueblackpercula]

Yes I still see a few of them and they have laid eggs several times. The problem is my mystery wrass loves eating them so I have to add them at night to give them a chance to get I to the sandbed.

 

[DgenR8]

Wow, I've tried them a few times, but they didn't seem to last. I attributed it to temp as that's what I found when I read up on them. Maybe it wasn't temp, maybe it was a predator.

 

[trueblackpercula]

Wow, I've tried them a few times, but they didn't seem to last. I attributed it to temp as that's what I found when I read up on them. Maybe it wasn't temp, maybe it was a predator.

I was told to only collect them during the summer months as the are accustomed to warm temps. But who knows

 

[tunicata]

Hm, I thought about collecting those too. A friend of mine collects them around LI.

However, before I asked him to get some for me, I checked in with John from reefcleaners.
I don't know if these are Ilyanassa obsoleta but he mentioned that those snails are known to carry flukes.
From there I did more research and while my friend and a lot of other people like you did not notice any negative impact, I held back due to some of the negative potentials i saw online:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1928909

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/f6/have-you-heard-of-ilyanassa-obsoleta-snails-105630.html

There is always some risk with any kind of animal purchase or hand collected item in our tanks. Just thought I'd put this out there to ensure awareness of some potential risk.