Nassarius Mating?

[radiata]

I saw something odd in my tank last night. The lights had been out for a half hour, and I noticed something moving on the substrate near the front glass as I was heading to bed. I took out my flashlight and found two on my Tongan Nassarius doing something, apparently together. Then I noticed many of them were out, which is really weird as I only see them when they smell food. Then I realized that there were four pairs of them all doing something, with another four single ones wandering on the substrate. My guess is that the pairs were mating.

I checked yesterday's moon thinking it might be full and triggering the mating. It wasn't - the prior full moon was four nights ago.

Anyone have any experience with this, or even seen it before?

 

[Doctorgori]

what do you think triggered this? Any changes to your lighting or temperature? You going to check again tonight

 

[radiata]

what do you think triggered this? Any changes to your lighting or temperature? You going to check again tonight

It wasn't a temperature change - my Apex Fusion says that over the past 7 days my High was 80.3, my Low was 79.4 and my Median was 79.9. I don't think it was lighting. There could have been a change to it when we set out clocks ahead for DST, but I haven't researched that. I didn't think to check the tank again last night. I did half expect to see some Nassarius egg cases on my front DT glass, but none have appeared (yet).

I forgot to mention one additional anomaly. When I tossed a frozen Hikari Clam-On-A-Half-Shell into the tank a few days ago, no Nassarius came out of the substrate for it. And this happened again yesterday. I'll try feeding them again today...

FWIW, the last time I added any Nassarius snails to my DT was 9/11/19.

 

[Zer0]

The jury is still out on whether the gravitational pull of the moon affects our aquariums in any significant way, but as far as the light provided by the moon at night, which is one of many triggers for spawning and other phenomena, providing the same conditions for aquariums in the house, that’s pretty much debunked.

If I had to guess, it would be that one snail went sexual, which then caused a frenzy.

 

[radiata]

And the answer is, it wasn't a mating ritual at all, it was actually just a Dance of Death.

One day after the event I found some Nassarius eggs of the front glass of my tank. The next day I saw a single snail perform their classical U-Turn on the front glass and return into the bottom sand.

I never saw a living Nassarius again from that group of twelve. At the time I had been having fish disease issues with my tank, and I attempted to feed the fish API General Cure (Metronidazole and Praziquantel) held in place on my frozen PE Mysis food with Seachem Focus. The Black-Foot Trochus Snails living in the tank weren't affected ~ but of course, they live on algae. I added a half dozen Nassarius back into the tank this past week, and they seem to be doing well.

One never knows, do one...