Bumble Bee Snails

[chubtank]

Hello Dr. Ron
I have a 10 gal. tank with 2 bumble bee snails. My question is, how long will it take for them to reproduce? And I also have a Atl. Green Mushroom. It's been in my tank for 2 months now. How long does it take for it to split and clone itself? My tank floor is 60% coral sand and 40% coral rock. Do i have to place the mushroom coral on the sand or on sand and rock when it starts to split?
Ray...aka.chubtank........

[rshimek]

Originally posted by chubtank

Hi Ray,

[welcome]

I have a 10 gal. tank with 2 bumble bee snails. My question is, how long will it take for them to reproduce?

Well, that depends. First you have to have at least one of each gender. Secondly, they need to be well fed, and in good condition, to breed. These snails are predators on other snails and worms and need a lot of food to get in breeding condition. Finally, after they spawn they will lay egg capsules someplace in the tank. These will take several weeks to several months to hatch, depending on the conditions. So... bottom line, IF you have a male and female and if they are well fed, probably a year or more for the results of any spawning to become noticeable.

How long does it take for it to split and clone itself?

Again this is largely related to how much food it is getting. With good food and appropriate lighting and other conditions, it should be splitting regularly.

Do i have to place the mushroom coral on the sand or on sand and rock when it starts to split?

No, just let the clones go where they want to go by themselves.

[Reefcherie]

Originally posted by rshimek


Hi Ray,

<img src="http://www.reefcentral.com/images/welcome.gif"><br><b><i><font size="4" color="blue">To Reef Central</b></i></font>

I have a 10 gal. tank with 2 bumble bee snails. My question is, how long will it take for them to reproduce?

Well, that depends. First you have to have at least one of each gender. Secondly, they need to be well fed, and in good condition, to breed. These snails are predators on other snails and worms and need a lot of food to get in breeding condition. Finally, after they spawn they will lay egg capsules someplace in the tank. These will take several weeks to several months to hatch, depending on the conditions. So... bottom line, IF you have a male and female and if they are well fed, probably a year or more for the results of any spawning to become noticeable.



Dr. Ron,

I read the above info on Bumble Bee snails with interest because a few came with a detritivore kit I got from Inland Aquatics in mid July '02. I guess I must have the right food and right conditions because starting in October, I started noticing tiny Bumble Bee snails all over the place (unfortunately - now that I know more about them)! That's just 3 months, so I maybe the original ones came all set to spawn! Now I wish I could get rid of them all, but amongst 200+ lbs of live rock - fat chance!

Cheri

[rshimek]

Hi Cherie,

Well, you are obviously doing well by them. These snails, a species of Engina, are buccinid predators on small snails, worms and other animals. The egg capsules deposited by the female snails in this group typically hatch to give crawl away juveniles. With the larval stage being passed totally in the egg capsule, they can really become abundant in a hurry, as each female can typically lay hundreds of egg capsules each producing 5-10 juveniles.

Once they copulate, the females can store sperm for months and produce eggs and, subsequently, babies for a long time....

:D

[wizardgus®]

Am I following this thread right? A few weeks ago I added some bumblebee snails to BOTH tank and refugium. Since then I have seen daily die-off of various other snails. I have been hunting for a the killer....I put it in there myself?

[Reefcherie]

Originally posted by rshimek
Hi Cherie,

Well, you are obviously doing well by them. These snails, a species of Engina, are buccinid predators on small snails, worms and other animals. The egg capsules deposited by the female snails in this group typically hatch to give crawl away juveniles. With the larval stage being passed totally in the egg capsule, they can really become abundant in a hurry, as each female can typically lay hundreds of egg capsules each producing 5-10 juveniles.

Once they copulate, the females can store sperm for months and produce eggs and, subsequently, babies for a long time....

:D

I went searching and didn't find much information on their typical prey...but I've been losing turbo snails and just lost my queen conch. Can you tell me anything about how they accomplish their predation (i.e. bore into the shell of their prey)? Do you think it is possible they could have done in a 3" (shell size) queen conch? Do you know of a natural predator for these now very unwelcome guests? Have you heard or read anything that would indicate my clams are in any danger from them?

Thanks,
Cheri

[Caterham]

Dr. Ron,

Just wanted to stop by this thread and ask a few questions about the Bumblebee snails.

My experience with these snails is that they are not the least bit predatory. These snails, in my experience, are scavengers. They have a sense for a creature that is about to die and head straight for it in our tanks. In wholesale distribution, one can get an indication of the health of new arrivals by observing the bumblebee snails reaction to them.

When one observes these creatures in their natural habitat some more clues are revealed. In the Marshall Islands, they are always found on the windward side. No matter the specific island, it's always the windward side that they are found, waiting for some sort of nutrition to be pushed their way. It would be incorrect to say that they are the exact opposite of a predator in this regard, as predators are found everywhere :)

This is just my experience. I think that this creature is absolutely 100% reef safe and that they are very beneficial as cleaners in general.

I am not an expert! I am just voicing what I have seen in the real world and was hoping that you could elaborate on what you have seen yourself and let me know why you have determined that these creatures are predators.

Thanks so much for your help and contributions to this hobby Dr. Shimek. I truly enjoyed your talk about trace elements at MACNA this year and I hope that the site near Puget Sound has been all cleaned up :)

In closing, I think that these snails are scavengers. Please educate me!

[rshimek]

Hi Folks,

Engina species, including this one, are carnivores that subsist on eating carrion if necessary.

They are buccinid snails, and as such have a long proboscis that they can insert into clams, snails and worm tubes to rasp out the flesh of the prey. They likely secrete a poisonous "saliva" to immobilize their prey. Unlike the muricid snails, they do not have an "accessory boring organ." Consequently, they can not bore through calcareous substrata.

See this article (http://www.animalnetwork.com/fish2/aqfm/1998/oct/wb/default.asp) for a discussion of predatory snails in general, but the article also shows the extension of the proboscis and feeding structures of a near relative of Engina that is found in temperate areas

They are preferentially predatory, that is to say they will eat living material in preference to scavenging food. If they do scavenge, they will preferentially scavenge carrion. Research on Engina species indicates, in nature, their diet preference is 1) worms, 2) snails, and 3) small clams. In a tank, there predatory activities may be obscured if 1) there are a lot of prey (such as worms) that are living in sediments (the hobbyist would simply not notice that they are being eaten, until the DSB started to fail) or a lot of snails. Additionally, as in all predatory snails of this nature, there are individual variations in dietary preferences, some individuals of the predator may prefer worms to snails, and vice versa. Interestingly, it turns out that they have to learn how to hunt, and will generally learn to eat the most abundant of their potential prey. Another point, though, they will always be predators.

Predators are not "found anywhere." Most predatory snails have both habitat and dietary preferences. The food for these more-or-less generalist predators would likely be found everywhere, and I suspect and differences in distribution would be due to other factors such as a prevalence of particular habitats or perhaps a differential distribution of their own predators. Also distributions vary through time. I have watched populations of some similar predatory snails, appear in an area, persist for about about 10 years, then vanish (in this case their predators became abundant), then after another 5 or 6 years reappear, presumably to start the cycles over.

As far as predators upon them in a reef system, I can't really suggest any that would be benign to other tank inhabitants. In nature, small buccinids are often eaten by small crabs, octopuses, sea stars, or some fishes.

:D
.

[Lazyreefer]

Hmm... I always liked my bumble snails.

But now...


Hmmm.. I feel like Homer.

[ostrow]

Ron, could bumblebee snails kill an emerald crab? I had an adult emerald suddenly belly-up. A bumblebee was on top of it when I found it. I have captured 2 bumblebees and moved them to the sump. One left...

[rshimek]

Hi,

I think it would be possible for them to kill an emerald crab if they caught it in a freshly molted and soft-shell condition. Otherwise, I would suspect they were just scavenging the corpse.

[alixday]

What stinks about the bumbleBee is that most LFS and online distributors sell them as good for the sandbed and great for the cleanup crew. I, unknowingly, ordered, and have since been trying to remove, over 20 of them from both tank and sump. In short it has been no easy task.

I know as the hobbists it's my responsibility to know what I'm putting in the tank, but is sucks that it's being marketed as a beneficial creature when it is in-fact destroying the same DSB it is said to maintain.

[fish @ chips 29]

i have 3 of them in a nano and they just do like all the other snails clean glass sand and rocks have even seen them clean a few crabs to but now after reading this i wonder if they were really cleaning of trying to eat my crabs lol i will see they have been in there for 5 days now and all is well so far so i will leave umm

[rshimek]

Hi,

These animals "clean" rocks or glass, just like wolves clean forests. As wolves live in forests, these snails live on the rocks. Period. They do not have a gut that can digest algae.

LFS and Distributors generally haven't a clue about the animals they sell; and they don't have to. :D All they have to do to make a buck is go with marketing hype. The old statement, Caveat emptor = Let the buyer beware, applies.