Nassarius Obsoleta

How many of these would you need for a 95G setup as reef?

eBay: 100 MARINE AQUARIUM SNAILS - FREE US SHIPPING!! (item 320024093803 end time Oct-03-06 23:09:43 PDT)

Has anybody bought any from this guy. They seem really cheap!

 

nassarius snails never leave the substrate, in my opinion 100 would be too many for a 95, i suppose it would depend upon your fish load and how much extra food would hit the substrate. maybe someone else can chime in and give you another opinion...

 

I bought a 100 for my 90 tank from a different guy. these snails went everywhere. Walls, substrate, rock... Nice little burrowers. My mantis loves to eat them

Jim

 

This is false, nassarius snails will go anywhere there is food. I have 40 in my 90gal and could add more. I believe it all depends on the amount of sand you have and bio-load. Keep in mind that 100 will easily turn into 300 then 900 then 2700 if you are not careful.

 

I second Berlin. Definetly will wander on the glass. But their enviornment of choice is sand substrate.

 

i just base this on my experience....i have a pair of tongan nassarius snails and i've never seen them leave the substrate, maybe it has something to do with their variety.

 

i just purchased a bunch of the tongan nassarius snails about a week ago and they haven't left the live rock yet

 

I had nassarius snails in my old tank and the only time I ever saw them was when I fed the tank

 

I have to run to a meeting so I can't type now. DO NOT BUY THOSE UNTIL I GET A CHANCE TO RESPOND.

Those are NOT Nassarius vibex!!!

 

Sorry for the delay.

Nassarius snails live in/on/around reefs. They are one of the few whelks that never has any predatory tendencies. Llynassa obsoleta (or mud snail/mud dog snail) is related, but is definately a different animal with different behavior and different needs.

There is no such thing as a Nassarius obsoleta. The scientific community changed their classification years ago. (Although you will still find a lot of sources improperly using that name).

Nassarius can handle reef tank temperatures quite well, eat carrion (dead animals, and meaty foods that land on the sandbed), and primarily hang in the sandbed 99% of the time. They don't eat algae, detritus, or cyanobacteria.

On the other hand, Llynassa obsoleta is from temperate regions and they don't live nearly as long with the tank temperatures that we keep in our reef tanks. Dr. Shimek estimates that their respiration is 180~200% of the normal metabolic rate due to the higher temps in our reef tanks. These will eat algaes and cyanobacteria in addition to carrion. However, if there is not enough food for them, they will eat something else.....OTHER SNAILS AND CLAMS. Since I have no way of gauging if they have enough food, I never put these into my tanks. These will hang on your glass and live rock for a good portion of the day, rarely going into the sandbed. As a result, they are not good sandstirrers.

This statement is highly inaccurate. If you have too many for the food supply, they will definately attack each other as well as other snails.

If you only have a few of them, or you have a real dirty tank (or both) I doubt they will resort to cannibalism/murder. However, they don't last long. I've had Nassarius live up to 5 years. I doubt most of these will pass the 6 month mark at the higher reef tank temperature.