Feeding Nassarius Snails

eqbal9947 · Oct 21, 2022

Hey, I was wondering how you guys feed your nassarius snails.
Mine only come out at night and my fish do not let the food hit the sand.
I carpet the sand at night with shrimp and my fish eat most of that too, but is there a better way that i may have overlooked

thanks!

Mr. Mojo Rising · Oct 21, 2022

I dont feed them, they are scavengers, they will scavenge for leftover food at night.
If the fish are eating every single piece of food you put in the tank, I assume you are not feeding enough.

TheReefDiary · Oct 21, 2022

What above said.

eqbal9947 · Oct 21, 2022

LordofCinder said:
I dont feed them, they are scavengers, they will scavenge for leftover food at night.
If the fish are eating every single piece of food you put in the tank, I assume you are not feeding enough.

I have 2 clowns, juvenile regal and naso, gem tang, melanarus, mandarin, diamond goby and a copperband and I feed 4 cubes a day, flakes twice a day and a nori strip. they're over-fed if anything.
I can and have feed 6 cubes a day and they still will eat that and more.

Slocke · Oct 21, 2022

I believe they will get what they need from the fishes excrement. You can also bury food though the wrasse may figure that one out. Halichoeres are a pain when trying to feed my burrowing eels haha.

killer2001 · Oct 22, 2022

Feed a little more. Soon as the food hits the substrate my nassarius snails pop out of the sand like zombies and head right for the food.

Alexopora · Oct 22, 2022

Mine will be out immediately lights or no lights. I generally don’t worry to much about them as broadcast feed the tank. They are out as well whenever I feed my urchins Nori.

FreshSaltyGuy · Oct 22, 2022

eqbal9947 said:
Hey, I was wondering how you guys feed your nassarius snails.
Mine only come out at night and my fish do not let the food hit the sand.
I carpet the sand at night with shrimp and my fish eat most of that too, but is there a better way that i may have overlooked

thanks!

I don't feed mine either. Just like everyone else says they are scavengers and get all that waste and stuff to help keep the tank clean. But I'm new to reefs but had fresh tanks for 20+ years.

eqbal9947 · Oct 22, 2022

I ask because I they have been dying alot. Maybe the deaths are a different problem

TokenReefer · Oct 22, 2022

flennwagner said:
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. blackpods

I believe they are carnivores. I would feed them until you get fish and then just feed the fish and they'll be fine... Imo