Caught In The Act

The first thing I did in the new year was find out where my Nassarius snails have been going. I added five about a month ago and they have slowly disappeared. Tonight, I looked at my tank, and saw one of my banded serpent stars with half a Nassarius hanging out of it's mouth. This was disappointing as I loved the Nassarius and everyone said that banded serpents were the only completely safe brittle stars. What should I do? I was thinking either get rid of them, or spot feed them a couple times a week so they don't have to hunt. I don't think the snail was previously dead.

What a great welcome to 2009.

 

the code of the aquarium if it fits in your mouth try to eat it. a starfish could eat stuff alot worse then a nassarius snail.

i would feed my star fresh water algae wafers, it was cool because they swallow it whole. feed it wafers ever 2 days see if it stops.

btw nassarius snails aren't good snails for your aquarium since they are mainly carnivores and need meaty feedings

 

You're the first person I've ever heard say that Nassarius snails are bad. Honestly, I think they are excellent scavengers to clean up meaty food leftovers. I think I'm going to return the brittle stars.

 

there fine as long as they have enough food(and you don't have too many so that you have to overfeed the tank), but they shouldn't be the bulk of you clean up crew,they don't really eat algae. there are alot better scavengers out there, even if there not cool little sand submarines.

 

They were never a large part of my cleanup crew, and I have a lot of other things to eat algae. My main scavengers are snails and hermit crabs.

 

Hi LCP, 4 Nassarius in a 90 gal. is fine. I also have never heard or read what sostoudt said. They eat detritus, that is why we add them along with shifting the sand and minimizing the dead areas. I think I would try to trade in the Star fish though. A predator is a predator and given the opportunity they will devour other denizens of the deep that we don't want devoured! Also, if you are going to try to spot feed it every couple of days that is adding (or will add) more waste going into the tank and increasing the bio load.

 

doesn't detritus consist of aquarium bio-waste including uneaten meaty food as well as poop and mucus?

 

This is true for the most part, but not the golden rule.

From my esp., I would have to disagree with you. The description that I have for Nassarius Snails is as follows;
The Nassarius Snails are scavengers and eat detritus, left over food, decaying organics and fish waste. When it is not eating, it will bury itself in the sand and sleep.

Yup, me too Luna

 

They are going back. I'm also suspicious of them as the culprits of my Yellow Clown Goby disappearance.

 

4 only I have at least 30 in my 90. You cant go wrong with N. Snails, they keep your LR and LS super clean, free from algae,detritus, left over food, decaying organics and fish waste. The more the better IMO. Luna