Feeding Nassarius Snails?

[stan]

Hey Nano-Reefers

 

Its been 2 weeks and my new Eclipse 12gal (10 lbs liverock 10 lbs live sand) seems to be at the end of it's cycle. Ammonia=0, Nitrite=0, Nitrate=5. Had an ugly brown diatom breakout, but most of it seems to be dying back now and the corraline algae is coming back too.

 

Anyways, i went to the LFS and decided to pickup a cleaning crew. 1 Astrea, 3 Red Leg Hermits, 6 Nassarius snails.

 

The Astrea is a dynamo sucking up all the brown algae and the Red Legs are always crawling around the liverocks picking at things i cant see. So i think they're eating too.

 

The question i have is with the Nassarius snails. I've read on the forums that they eat algae, others say detritus, others say only leftover food.

 

I dont have any fish in the tank and dont plan to for at least another 2 weeks so im not feeding anything into the tank so there really isnt any "food" to eat.

 

Will the nassarius snails survive by eating whatever they can find in the tank or do i need to find something to feed them? If so, what should i feed?

 

They seem to be healthy, it's only been 3 days. They spend a lot of time buried in sand with just their tubes sticking out, but will come out from time to time and roam the tank, usually at night.

[trmiv]

I'm wondering that too, I put five in my tank, but I have no fish, maybe I should feed them something. I rarely see them though, I usually see one or two every one in awhile, but never all five at once. I'm wondering if they are all still alive. If not, a few must be dead in the sand.

[jaguilar]

if you have any flake food, put a little in a cup of tank water for a minute, then put some in the tank a little at a time. all nass snails will show up for roll call. it never fails.... they can smell food, and if they're alive, they'll surface for chow time. that's the perfect time for a head count.

[trmiv]

I tried that will some sinking food pellets, expecting them to come out, none did. Even if I put the pellet right on top of one of their little snorkels. But, if I actually dug the snail out of the sand, and out the pellet right next to him, he would snag the pellet and start eating. After he started eating, a second snail sufraced and started moving around (he never manged to find the snail that was eating the pellet). The other three never came out though. Makes wonder if they are still alive. If they did die under the sand, should I just leave them there? They could be anywhere. I'm worried about an ammonia spike though.

[stan]

I'll give that one a try. I'm assuming feeding once or twice a week would make sense before i finally add some fish and start regular feedings.

 

My Nassarius are pretty active, i can see all six at one point or another, they seem to keep in the same area of the tank.

[Warboz]

MY Nass come out and b-line to the sinking pellets. Then they get them and their long mouth comes out and they're foot holds the foot while they munch on it. It's pretty cool. They come out of the sand as soon as they "smell" the pellets.

[Fant]

If you have true nassarius snails then they are carrion eaters. They are like maggots, it is physically impossible for them to eat living tissue. True nass. will do as warboz said and hone in on dead/decaying food particles. They do not eat algae. There are lots of other nassarius look alikes being sold these days though. Do a search on RC or somthing for the specifics of the different species.

[stan]

#@#$@!! LFS employees!!! He told me they're 50/50 algae/detritus eaters. Well at least he was right, they do stir up the sand nicely.

 

Looks like i have Tongan Nassarius (Nassarius Distortus). Kinda takes the magic away knowing i have a tank full of maggot-like snails.

[trmiv]

OK, I take back what I said about my nassarius snails, they must have just been lazy last time I tried to feed them. I put two small sinking pellets last night, and all five magically floated to the sufrace and began fighting over the food.

 

Regardless of what they eat, I think they are facinating to watch. They move fast, and two of them love to take daily trips over my hill of live rock, just to do it I guess. Watching them feed is pretty cool.

[Warboz]

They are fun to watch, my Nass snails (2) stick right next to each other and hardly ever move away. So basically...I have paired Nass snails and already have baby Astrea snails EVERYWHERE.

[stan]

I too put some sinking food in the tank yesterday and the second it hit the water all 6 snails went nuts roaming the tank looking for the food. They're really cool to watch. Interesting thing that happened is a ton of little white bugs (copepods?) also came out and swarmed the food.

[MillerLite]

I observed the coolest thing at the LFS. When I asked about the nassarius, the LFS person thawed some brine shrimp and walked me to a tank of nassarius snails. As soon as some of the brine and juice hit the tank water, the invisible snails were coming out of the sand by the dozens. They were all over the place. Pretty cool trick. Might want to thaw some brine and just introduce the juice to see if they respond. I also sometimes spot feed brine or formula 1 to the snails that come up for chow time on the glass in the front of the tank. They seem to know that is where my hand is and come up for food. Pretty cool... Definitely feed them though. They will probably not eat just algae and will need supplementary feeding.

[Warboz]

Here's a pic of my Nass eating:

[SoBe]

Originally posted by Fant

If you have true nassarius snails then they are carrion eaters. They are like maggots, it is physically impossible for them to eat living tissue. True nass. will do as warboz said and hone in on dead/decaying food particles. They do not eat algae. There are lots of other nassarius look alikes being sold these days though. Do a search on RC or somthing for the specifics of the different species.

 

I know. I saw this thing on discovery about beach scavengers. They showed a dead fish washed up on the beach, then in minutes there were like 50 Nassarius snails taking chunks out of it. By low tide there was hardly anything left.

 

 

Mike

[stan]

Here's some weird Nassarius behavior.

 

Since i've been feeding them, they've been much more active. I guess they were hungry.

 

But what i notice now is the a few of the snails like to fight (mate?). One will chase another around and when finally caught, the snail will twist it's shell quickly and use it as a weapon to knock back the assailant. Pretty cool.

 

By the way my nassarius come out at the slightest scent of food, but they're not too bright. They'll roam the tank and never find the food. At least not for a long time. Maybe it's because i have too much current and the food constantly shifts along the sand.

[Warboz]

Mine also act in similar manner. Following each other around in a hunt for food and rarely coming up with anything. That's why I posted that pic of my Nass actually eating something.

[trmiv]

yea, mine do that too. sometimes i place some cyclop-eeze right on the sand, they surface, and head the complete opposite direction. by the time they get back to where the food was, most of it has floated away.

[stan]

sometimes mine will come within a millimeter of the food and walk right by. Very gut-wrenching.

[Yup]

The usuall routine is to rise from the sand, Head straight for the pellet, munch away for 2 minutes, then climb the glass and jump off about half way up.

[Warboz]

Yes...climbing up then jumping off.

[gmy]

You guys have only seen the half of it. As long as conditions remain or turn favorable, the nass snails will reproduce in your tanks. If you ever notice multiple small bumps on the back of (sometimes the front) your tank with little eggs inside ------- pass around the cigars. The best web site to get them from is florida pets.com. They have a couple of species to chose from.