Snails crawling out

  • Thread starter Thread starter ErikVR
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I have super tongan nassarius, and if they aren't getting enough food they try to base jump onto things. I lost a coral banded shrimp to them. Mine are on the glass daily to lay eggs, but ever since I figured out I needed to feed a sginificant amount more, they have stopped climbing as high as they can and haphazardly gliding at things.
Thanks, I'll start feeding pellets more often and see if they get eaten.
 
I have some small pellets that almost none of my fish go for so I use them to feed the bottom. As soon as they hit the sand those two snails come out. And guess what... they went straight up and over! :grinning-face-with-sweat:

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Looks like a Babylonia snail which can be carnivorous. I have never seen nassarius (Tongan/distortus) with those markings.
 
These guys are fascinating when they eat!
Video

They left the Hermit alone this time. Hoping they don't start bothering him.


That looks similar to a distortous, but I am pretty sure it's a babylonian, these things eat way more than the rest of the nessarius snails, and you will probably want to drop in a 1cm long piece of krill for it and figure out how much it will eat.

Reefcleaners says it eats as much as 12 nassarius vibex, but i am not sure how that compares to my tongans. My tongans will eat quite a bit. It also says they will eat small snails and invertibrates, but sounds like as long as you feed them they are fine. Your's looks like better sand stirrers than mine.

It's also recomended to have them with fish that eat large quantities of food leaving left overs.

I also have only ever seen my tongans have their eating proboscus out that far when consuming live food, so idk if that is hunger behavior, or normal for them. If I saw my tongans digging in the sand like that, I would throw in food for them. Again, that may just be how this species behaves and not an indication it's going to hunt.
 
Get a dog that will pick them up and bring them to you when they climb out :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:
I can't keep trochus snails in my rimless tanks. I had one that crawled down the stand then inside and I found it sitting on my power strip. I got tired of putting them back in so now I toss them in the sump which is a rimmed tank that they don't crawl out of.
 
Thanks for all the feedback.
I sent my fish store a message asking them to clear up what exactly they sent me.
 
That looks similar to a distortous, but I am pretty sure it's a babylonian, these things eat way more than the rest of the nessarius snails, and you will probably want to drop in a 1cm long piece of krill for it and figure out how much it will eat.

Reefcleaners says it eats as much as 12 nassarius vibex, but i am not sure how that compares to my tongans. My tongans will eat quite a bit. It also says they will eat small snails and invertibrates, but sounds like as long as you feed them they are fine. Your's looks like better sand stirrers than mine.

It's also recomended to have them with fish that eat large quantities of food leaving left overs.

I also have only ever seen my tongans have their eating proboscus out that far when consuming live food, so idk if that is hunger behavior, or normal for them. If I saw my tongans digging in the sand like that, I would throw in food for them. Again, that may just be how this species behaves and not an indication it's going to hunt.
Got a message back straight away and apparently they sent 2 Buccinulum Corneum (aka Babylonia) because the ones I ordered were out of stock (thanks for the heads up mister fish store...). So it looks like I've got big eaters to deal with :)
 
Thanks for all the feedback.
I sent my fish store a message asking them to clear up what exactly they sent me.
My tongans were misidentified and sold as vibex, I've had techtus snails sold to me as trochus too, I've seen quite a few snails misidentified being sold at a lot of the LFS in the chicago area. It seems common, they may have no idea that they did that, IF they dis misidentify it. If it wasn't for the flesh color, I'd have mistaken it too, and if I didn't have a bunch of nassarius snail reading under my belt due to mine taking out a couple inverts before I knew how to feed them, i wouldn't have given it a second thought.
 
Got a message back straight away and apparently they sent 2 Buccinulum Corneum (aka Babylonia) because the ones I ordered were out of stock (thanks for the heads up mister fish store...). So it looks like I've got big eaters to deal with :)

That's cool they were able to confirm it.

Def cool lookin snails, and they sound like they are fairly easily prevented from going predatory. It will let you feed more lazily too if you do get big eaters, not have to worry aboit pulling food back out if you overfeed.
 
Some snails will “jump out” , especially of rimless tanks.
Those below are safer for rimless tanks:
Astraea Snails, Dwarf Ceriths, Florida Ceriths, and Nassarius snails.
My astrea snails take trips outside the tank even though I have a lid, they like to crawl up into the HOB filter and eat algae off it. When I first introduced them I did find one that had gotten itself on top of the lid out of the water and was in trouble. (It was fine when I got it back in the tank.) So I would still keep an eye on them.
 
They haven’t fully climbed out since I started feeding the bottom with more pellets. It’s fun to see them come out of the sand straight away when the pellets hit the bottom. They do still sometimes climb the glass and I nudge em back down if I notice it.
 

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