Tonga snail question

[Rikerbear]

I have MANY years of marine fish keeping, but am new to reefing and the world of inverts and mollusks.
My question is why does my tonga nassarius snail keep crawling out of my tank? Two nights in a row........ I have found it on the floor severalfeet from the tank. All my parameters are 'good', and all my other critters are fine it seems. Is it just being stupid or is this a sign of something? Maybe in search of food? I don't feed the tank much as it's a 16 gal nano with only one small goby, 3 hermits, and a few turbo snails. Not many corals or polyps yet as it's a fairly new tank.

 

[jedimasterben]

Nassarius are intertidal snails, so they go pretty much anywhere. They're not as bad as nerites, IMHO, but the worst are limpets - they get the smallest amount out of water and they just stop and wait for high tide, which never comes, unfotunately, so they just die. :/

 

[cdness]

My nass snails never get to the top of the tank so they have never escaped. They are typically sand dwelling until feeding time but when done feeding they go back to the sand for me.

However Nerites and limpets have and now it makes sense why they fry themselves...

 

[Rikerbear]

It usually buries in the sand and waits for feeding time. I have seen him crawl across the tank glass but never to the top rim.
I think I'll start overing the tank at night again, I had removed the cover to help stabalize PH at night....... hmmmmmm
Thanks for the replies :smile: