Cali Kid Corals

Nassarius Snails

anyone ever do a snail only tank? My snails just popped out babies... and since I have no crabs or cuc besides my sea hare, none of them look like they died. The front of my tank is covered in white dots of hatched snails and soon to be hatched snails.


thinking about setting up a tank with just a sandbed and throwing in mysis or bloodworms once in a while.


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Odds are they aren't Nassarius. Nassarius will breed in the tank, but their eggs are laid in a patterned clump and they almost never survive the floating larval stage. If it's small white dots everywhere it's likely Trochus.
 
I’ve had cerith snails multiply in my tank but that’s the only ones I can confirm. I’ve had trochus snails spawn a few times but never saw the babies. Then I’ve had nerite snails lay “eggs” but again, didn’t see any babies.
 
Hmm I thought I only had nassarius snails in my tank. Ill have to wait a few months and find out.

I remember your tank had hundreds of the cerith snails. was pretty cool.


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I had Nass reproduce in a tank a long time ago, would like to have it happen again. Would be nice to have a ton to distribute around.
Just saw one of the captive bred trochus I got from Liz @Chromis "smoking" the other night. Kinda weird it was only one tho...
 
The smoke plumes will tell you which sex the Trochus is. The females will broadcast a ton of tiny eggs while the males will broadcast milky plumes into the column. I've seen both and usually one triggers another, but similar to your experience, this time it was only the male.

Take a closer look at the baby snails when you get a chance. They could be Collonista snails which look like tiny little banded snails, but unlike Trochus, their shells are rounded instead of pyramid shaped. If you see a bunch of white eggs, scattered around, but not in any defined pattern, it could also be either Margaritas or Nerite snails as well.
 
I’ve definitely had trochus babies before, the biggest one I saw was maybe half a dime size. I’m pretty sure I’ve had nassarius babies as well, they had a cone shaped shell, but I never found one bigger than maybe 2mm
 
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Funny enough, last night I watched my Nassarius snail lay these eggs in a crescent shape. Definitely feeling the poor choices of not going to bed right now but thats what I love about this hobby. It creates an excitement that cant be explained and hours spent feels like minutes until you realize too late.

As for the hundreds of white dots, I realized they have flat shells but since they are so tiny... I cant say for sure if its stomella snails or another kind but no sign of any trochus parents.

My tank is becoming aesthetically unappealing due to me “farming” gha for my sea hare and not cleaning the glass because of all the eggs.


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The part I love most about this hobby is the diversity in life that these ecosystems hold. I enjoy watching the “zombie snails” come out of the sand when I feed, or watching a pod colony buzz around inside a tiny cavern, and even the micro brittles waving their arms around. It’s always nice to relax at the end of the day and watch the tank a bit
 
The part I love most about this hobby is the diversity in life that these ecosystems hold. I enjoy watching the “zombie snails” come out of the sand when I feed, or watching a pod colony buzz around inside a tiny cavern, and even the micro brittles waving their arms around. It’s always nice to relax at the end of the day and watch the tank a bit
I don’t know how many freak out moments I have when I discover something new that I’d never seen before. The first time I saw a spaghetti worm I quickly scooped it out thinking something that bizarre and ugly couldn’t be good.
 
I don’t know how many freak out moments I have when I discover something new that I’d never seen before. The first time I saw a spaghetti worm I quickly scooped it out thinking something that bizarre and ugly couldn’t be good.
Right?!? The first thing I thought when I saw one was Scarlacc!
 
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