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Nassarius snails: friend or foe?

EBR

By EBR,
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EBR Tang

EBR

So I go out this past weekend to Sea Save and get 100 of the little buggers at $.25 a piece. I've seen them before and how they just decimate all sorts of nasty stuff, keep the substrate stirred up, yadda yadda. Within a couple hours, I notice one had latched onto the tail of my fire shimp, one of my favorite critters in the tank. Lo and behold, he shakes him off just fine, but it still makes me wonder. Well, an hours after that, he's lying on the bottom, barely moving, with four of those darn snail along his underside and tail, basically suffocating him. Dead. The little buggers. Oh, I was torn between shock ("AAAAHHHHH!!!"), and irritation ("those little rotters"), and bewilderment ("how can you NOT out run a SNAIL?").

 

Anyone ever seen anything like this?

 

Matt

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lanman Oracle Reefer

lanman

So I go out this past weekend to Sea Save and get 100 of the little buggers at $.25 a piece. I've seen them before and how they just decimate all sorts of nasty stuff, keep the substrate stirred up, yadda yadda. Within a couple hours, I notice one had latched onto the tail of my fire shimp, one of my favorite critters in the tank. Lo and behold, he shakes him off just fine, but it still makes me wonder. Well, an hours after that, he's lying on the bottom, barely moving, with four of those darn snail along his underside and tail, basically suffocating him. Dead. The little buggers. Oh, I was torn between shock ("AAAAHHHHH!!!"), and irritation ("those little rotters"), and bewilderment ("how can you NOT out run a SNAIL?").

 

Anyone ever seen anything like this?

 

Matt

I can't imagine... shrimp MUST have been ill, not to be able to get away from the snails. They can travel 30 MPH with a snap of their tail.

 

bob

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traveller7 Grandmaster Reefer

traveller7

(edited)

Shrimp are in danger during molting intervals.

 

Cheap clean up "Nassarius" are often temperate water specimens which can be quite opportunistic, i.e. not only carrion types, but predatory.

 

The species most reef keepers desire would be N. vibex, smaller and carrion feeders.

 

If you want to know the species, one of the best candidates for the ID would be Dr. Ron Shimek over on Marine Depot's forums.

 

He'll need a clear picture of the shell opening and it helps to know collection point.

 

.25ea is fairly cheap and in my experience, the temperate water variety frequently picked up off the shore line in the Carolina's.

Edited by traveller7
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treesprite Neptune Reefer

treesprite

Shrimp are in danger during molting intervals.

 

Cheap clean up "Nassarius" are often temperate water specimens which can be quite opportunistic, i.e. not only carrion types, but predatory.

 

The species most reef keepers desire would be N. vibex, smaller and carrion feeders.

 

If you want to know the species, one of the best candidates for the ID would be Dr. Ron Shimek over on Marine Depot's forums.

 

He'll need a clear picture of the shell opening and it helps to know collection point.

 

.25ea is fairly cheap and in my experience, the temperate water variety frequently picked up off the shore line in the Carolina's.

 

Are all from temperate waters or just certain ones? Asking because doesn't that mean that like the Turbos their lives will be shortened by being in a tropical reef aquarium?

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lancer99 Master Reefer

lancer99

Yep, mostly likely Ilyanasty...err, Ilyanassa....., at least from what I've read.

 

True Nassariusseses don't seem to go after anything that's alive.

 

Get some Tonga Nassarius, about 3x larger than the regular ones (thanks Howard!)....it's hilarious seeing them cruise around blindly as soon as I add any food to my tank!

 

-R

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EBR Tang

EBR

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.it's hilarious seeing them cruise around blindly as soon as I add any food to my tank!

 

No doubt! These little guys all pop up out of the sand within 15 seconds of adding the first bit of food! Very fun -- well, except the part about killing my fireshrimp.

 

Matt

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treesprite Neptune Reefer

treesprite

So the ones on BZA listed as Onyx are the bad ones and I have 10 wandering around my tank. What would they hurt other than shrimp? Like I need to know whether or not to get them out of the tank.

 

I like seeing the description in that article about the snails. I have been staying away from turbos andmargaritas because they are not tropical snails.

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lancer99 Master Reefer

lancer99

It does indeed look like (based on the pic) that BZA's "Onyx" snails are Ilyanassa.

 

I was looking on eBay...couldn't believe I could get 300 snails for $36, and did some research, which led to the article bigJPDC referenced.

 

From the article, it sounds like your biggest worry is them attacking other snails, and the infauna in your sand bed.

 

-R

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lanman Oracle Reefer

lanman

I hope none of our local reef stores sell the 'bad' ones. I've never really paid much attention. If they are - it's a super cheat job; because I think I paid about $2 each for most of them, more in some cases.

 

Turbo snails are not tropical? They certainly don't seem to mind - I've seen some about 4-5" in diameter in a few tanks! I have one or two that are up in the 3" range. I don't ever recall finding an empty turbo shell, either - so they must still all be alive.

 

bob

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lancer99 Master Reefer

lancer99

I can't find the reference, but have read recently that some of what are sold as "Turbo" snails are indeed a temperate species. And Ron Shimek, who seems to know what he's talking about, says they only feed on diatoms, which is contradicted by this article: http://www.reefland.com/rho/0305/medprod3.php (a great read, btw).

 

I suspect that there are several different species, all called "Turbo" snails.

 

The ones I got from reeftopia are mostly doing well, but even reeftopia seem to be confused, calling them "Snail, Turbo (Astrae)" on their "Lot Prices" page (in contrast with "Snail, Golden, Small" which are really Astraeas).

 

And this is the best explanation I've ever read about why it's okay to ship snails "dry," i.e. just with moist paper towels: http://www.reefs.org/library/article/snail...matization.html . It's the next-to-last answer, by Ron Shimek.

 

-R

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treesprite Neptune Reefer

treesprite

(edited)

I think I might try to get those onyx nass out of my tank if they are possibly gonna kill the other snails. On BZA the latin name is indeed the bad one. Maybe I can put them in the fuge.... I don't have any fish that live primarily on pods so I don't think it matters (?)

 

Thanks for this thread Matt - it's extremely useful!

Edited by treesprite
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zotzer Grandmaster Reefer

zotzer

Well Forrest, the good thing about Nassarius is that you put a little food in the tank and they all pop out. I don't imagine it will be too tough to get them.

 

Tracy

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treesprite Neptune Reefer

treesprite

Well Forrest, the good thing about Nassarius is that you put a little food in the tank and they all pop out. I don't imagine it will be too tough to get them.

 

Tracy

 

These came very small like a week ago so they are hard to even see down there. I managed to get a few of them, which I put in the fuge but there's no sand in there; I might bring them to work and put them in the fuge section because there is sand in it.

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Lizzie Urchin

Lizzie

I have both nassarius and turbo snails & from reading the replies, I am getting a little bit worried about my other inhabitants. Mine are doing great cleaning the algae, but I did catch like 3-4 nassarius ganging up on a turbo. Should I be worried? (Btw, if it helps, I got mine from saltwaterfish.com)

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treesprite Neptune Reefer

treesprite

(edited)

From BZA:

 

 

Mexican Turbo Snail, Turban Snail, Top Shell

Description

Once the only marine snail available in the industry with any frequency, the Mexican Turbo Snail is a great algae grazer that will quickly mow down hair algae. The life expectancy of these snails is shortened due to many of them being collected from Mexico where the waters are cooler than most reef aquariums. The other downside with these snails is that as they grow larger they will bulldoze corals and rockwork and are best suited for very large aquariums.

 

 

Margarita snails:

Though they are excellent algae eaters, the Margarita Snail lives a short life in most reef aquaria. Margarita snails are intertidal snails that live in the cooler waters of the Pacific coast (off Mexico and California). They will live for 6 months on average in warmer reefs.

Edited by treesprite
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Wrench Tang

Wrench

EBR, was that you at Sea Save that I saw on Saturday talking to John about your fish list?

 

I bought a bunch of those nassarius snails too. Guess I'm going to ****** 'em out of there.

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EBR Tang

EBR

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EBR, was that you at Sea Save that I saw on Saturday talking to John about your fish list?

 

I bought a bunch of those nassarius snails too. Guess I'm going to ****** 'em out of there.

 

Funny. Yeah, must have been. I thought you looked familiar, and was going to ask if you belonged to CMAS or WAMAS, but I lost the moment. Nice to [belated] meet you :-)

 

You actually gave me a lot to think about, esp. regarding the idea of picking one species from each family -- can you point me to a site/resource that lays it all out for us non-Latin-speaking folk?

 

Matt

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Wrench Tang

Wrench

Funny. Yeah, must have been. I thought you looked familiar, and was going to ask if you belonged to CMAS or WAMAS, but I lost the moment. Nice to [belated] meet you :-)

 

You actually gave me a lot to think about, esp. regarding the idea of picking one species from each family -- can you point me to a site/resource that lays it all out for us non-Latin-speaking folk?

 

Matt

 

Sure, I'll send you a PM as to not clutter up this thread.

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bprinehart Reefer

bprinehart

I just found this link, http://www.reefland.com/forum/95938-post17.html

 

We may be ok getting them from Sea Save as they are collecting these snails from Florida and are most likely Nassarius Vibex as opposed the harmful Ilyanasa Obsoleta

 

I bought mine at Sea Save, and they do indeed only go after dead/dying things in the tank. I have read several places though that you have to be careful when picking them out as some predacious whelks are inadvertantly sold as Nassarius.

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treesprite Neptune Reefer

treesprite

I got 5 of the ones in my tank out and brought them to work today. They are isolated in the fuge section of the nano which has a DSB, so they should be happy enough in there. 5 to go.

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