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Tiny Snails-- Good or Bad?


Poison Dart Frog

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Poison Dart Frog

I'm getting a lot of these tiny white snails lately. Anyone know if they're harmful? They just started appearing a few weeks ago and I have several. The tank is almost 4 months old.

20191116_124305.jpg

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Nassarius like to stay below the Gravel/Sandbed, with just their "Snorkel" visible. They will come out at feeding times making a mad dash around the aquarium, sometimes even climbing the glass. I've never seen them on a Hermit or any other living crab, which would make me suspect a predator snail. 

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Poison Dart Frog
6 hours ago, DSA65PRO said:

Nassarius like to stay below the Gravel/Sandbed, with just their "Snorkel" visible. They will come out at feeding times making a mad dash around the aquarium, sometimes even climbing the glass. I've never seen them on a Hermit or any other living crab, which would make me suspect a predator snail. 

It was actually on the glass though it's hard to tell from the photo. These snails do spend a lot of time in the substrate I've noticed. They have one small "antenna" also

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Read this:

https://www.melevsreef.com/articles/whelk-versus-nassarius

 

People generally consider whelks bad, and nassarius snails good.  However, I think I remember @mcarroll suggesting that nassarius snails will also eat live beneficial fauna in the sand bed (and not just leftover food).  I'm not necessarily saying to remove the snails if they are nassarius, but to just be aware (especially if you have a large number of them).

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I think Nassarius are considered opportunistic scavengers of carrion, not unlike the hermits (I think I've read) they share habitat with.

 

Population biology of Nassarius vibex (Say, 1822) on a sheltered beach in Southeastern Brazil is a good read, with the full PDF being on researchgate (search Google Scholar).  We're mostly interested in the ancillary info vs the population dynamics or effect of toxins tho...so I'll quote a could of the main parts of interest:

 

From the abstract:

 

Quote

Species of this genus are scavengers, constituting a major link in the energy flow between carrion, independent of trophic levels, and the environment

 

From the intro:

Quote

Nassarius vibex (Say, 1822) is one of the most important species in the macrofaunal intertidal communities of sheltered sand–muddy beaches on the Sa˜o Paulo and Rio de Janeiro coast (Brazil) (Denadai et al. 2005, Cardoso et al. 2011) and constitutes a major link in the energy flow between carrion, independent of trophic levels, and the environment (Britton & Morton 1994a).

(carrion = decaying animals)

 

Definitely no reason to have too many scavengers as too many will starve....but a small number (maybe even just one) may not be a bad idea if your fish or coral feeding situation is messy.

 

I do think they'd wreck a well-populated sand bed if you had lots of nice worms and things.   But most folks don't get that kind of sand in the first place and they seem to gravel vac a lot....so not gonna be anything to worry about there, except: what will a nassarius eat?

Edited by mcarroll
clarity
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Thanks for the distinction Matt!  My understanding of what you previously posted was off.  Hermit crabs (like most crabs) can be opportunistic feeders (hunting when needed); however, it sounds like nassarius snails are more scavenger than hunter.

 

I've read where bumblebee snails (Engina sp.) may actually feed on beneficial fauna like worms (as I may have incorrectly attributed to nassarius snails).  Sorry for the confusion.

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3 hours ago, seabass said:

Thanks for the distinction Matt!  My understanding of what you previously posted was off.  Hermit crabs (like most crabs) can be opportunistic feeders (hunting when needed); however, it sounds like nassarius snails are more scavenger than hunter.

 

I've read where bumblebee snails (Engina sp.) may actually feed on beneficial fauna like worms (as I may have incorrectly attributed to nassarius snails).  Sorry for the confusion.

I may have actually said that at some point (about either snail or maybe even both).....seems familiar reading it somewhere (I thought Shimek, but his website is down), so not denying it.  👌 

 

In fact, because that website was down I had to look up some current info for that better answer (with backup) in this thread.

 

To be honest it's kind of a fine distinction IMO. 

 

And I bet a hungry Nassarius is just as capable of "hunting" as a Whelk if it came to starving or eating something.  (Could be wrong.)

 

Day to day I keep it simple and think of all of those "other snails" as "not herbivores".  (Since most tanks just need herbivores...Turbo, Astrea, Trochus, et al.)

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