Nassarius snails breeding

[Shnabbles]

I have nassarius snails (the white ones) they've had babies several times as I can see 2 or 3 different size babies ranging from a couple milimeters to a couple grains of sand in size.

Do they lay eggs? If they do where do they lay them? On the glass? in the sand?

[racrumrine]

Can you provide a picture or a link to something that looks like what you have?

Best of luck,

Roy

[dc]

While snails lay a lot of eggs, most of them don't hatch. Pictures would help to id. :D

[greenbean36191]

Nassarius lay egg capsules that sort of look like small white kernals of corn, usually on the rocks.

It's very unlikely that you have Nassarius successfully breeding in a reef tank though. What you're probably seeing are one of the many small snail groups that show up in reeftanks fairly often.

[Shnabbles]

I have the jumbo white nassarius snails... I wish I had a digitial camera worth a damn lol.... They are exact replicas of thier the full grown Nassarius... They have the little trunks just like their parents and they dig down in the sand and come up when i feed the tank just like the full size ones.

I would bet almost anything they are babies..

When the latest group of new borns were seen they all had a tiny bit of mucus like stuff coming from their shells like they just came from their egg.

[greenbean36191]

The reason I say that it's unlikely that you have baby Nassarius is that AFAIK, all species in the genus have planktotrophic larvae. That means that the larvae have a prolonged planktonic stage (about a month or so) and that they need to feed on phytoplankton during that period. That poses several hurdles to their development in a reef tank. The larvae are pretty fragile, so being jostled around in a reef tank or pumped through filtration and circulation equipment is likely to do them in. They also make tasty snacks for things like corals and other inverts. The biggest problem though is the availability of photoplankton. There is very little chance of having enough phytoplankton available in a reef tank to keep the larvae fed, even if you dose daily.

Even in culture systems, it's a lot of work to raise most planktotrophic larvae in captivity.

[Shnabbles]

OK i got my horrible camera out.. hope these pics show something.

First a couple of the adults... these are about the size of a quarter.
http://www.gamedaysportscards.com/tank/momma1.jpg

http://www.gamedaysportscards.com/tank/momma2.jpg

Now here is a baby... about the size of the led in a #2 pencil.
http://www.gamedaysportscards.com/tank/baby1.jpg

And here is one of the family, the 2 in front are bigger then the pic above... the one in the back is a adult... kinda hard to tell size because the adult is in the back.
http://www.gamedaysportscards.com/tank/family.jpg

[greenbean36191]

Well from those pics the snails appear to be a different species. They are definitely whelks, but don't appear to be Nassarius. Can you take some of them out and get a few photos of them for me? You need to get a shot of them looking straight down on the back of the shell and one looking at the opening of the shell.

[bjc451]

i beleve those are the super tonga nassarius

[greenbean36191]

Yes, the large snail is Nassarius, but from the pictures the small snails don't appear to be. The similarity is probably only superficial as they're both whelks. Better pictures are needed to tell for sure.

[BrianPlankis]

I would be interested in seeing pictures of these snails as well, I have heard many rumors of Nassarius snails breeding in captivity before, but never any conclusive proof.

My avatar is an example of how a snail should be photographed for having a better chance at identification (although better resolution of course). Then flip it over and take a picture of the other side opposite the shell opening.

Brian

[SuperNerd]

I'm no expert...but those look like two different snails to me too.

[delsol650]

looks like the tiny nassarius that stay small and sold for like 5 for $3 or something....

large- yes tongan...

small- nassarius...

[D-Rod]

last march i seeded and cured some LR that had been out of a tank for 3 months and i added 4 turbos by the time i got around to putting the rock in my tank 3+ months later the turbos were dead and within a month of being in a tank i spotted 6 tiny white dots and now they're the size of a pencil eraser.
i also purchased 24 certh and 24 nassarius and now i have babies of both...

SO IT IS POSSIBLE!

My tank is FOWLR and i've never added/purchased LR except for the LR that was out of the tank for 3 months.

[delsol650]

I never say never.....

there is always a slim posiblity...

[SuperNerd]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8808389#post8808389 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by D-Rod
last march i seeded and cured some LR that had been out of a tank for 3 months and i added 4 turbos by the time i got around to putting the rock in my tank 3+ months later the turbos were dead and within a month of being in a tank i spotted 6 tiny white dots and now they're the size of a pencil eraser.
i also purchased 24 certh and 24 nassarius and now i have babies of both...

SO IT IS POSSIBLE!

My tank is FOWLR and i've never added/purchased LR except for the LR that was out of the tank for 3 months.

Can you post some pics?

[greenbean36191]

I would love to see pics too if you can get them. A lot of times people confuse adults of small hitchhiking species (i.e. rissoids and Collonista) for juveniles of clean up crew members. Of course there are also people who definitely have cerith and even Turbo snails breeding. I still haven't seen anyone successfully raising Nassarius though.

large- yes tongan...

small- nassarius...
I disagree. I do see several small whelks, but none of them look even remotely like N. vibex or similar small species to me. I'm still waiting on better pictures though to tell what they actually are.

[D-Rod]

I will try to post pics over the next week or 2, house will be full of family from accross the state so keeping my face plastered on the glass for long periods or time will not happen for a while.

They are hard to find because they blend in so well, small and are most active at night.

[Shnabbles]

greenbean you said these snails are "whelks" are whelks reef safe? These things are all over the place now... i thought i read some where that whelks are not reef safe.

[greenbean36191]

There are lots of whelks (which is a group that includes Nassarius), and there are all sorts of feeding modes among them. Some, like Nassarius and columbellids are reef safe. The majority are predators on worms or mollusks though.

[Shnabbles]

is there any way for me to tell if these are predators? I cant believe how many of them their are now... Would a better pic help identify if they are good or bad?

[greenbean36191]

Yep. This article has some examples of the kind of shots that would help.
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-11/mg/index.php

[SuperNerd]

greenbean:

What are the chances that a vibex will eat film algae off the glass?

[RedEyeElf]

I have SEEN my Nessarius laying eggs probably 15 times (always in the early morning when i'm leaving for work) the babies don't look like the big nessies though, and mine don't survive past corn kernel size

[greenbean36191]

There aren't any reliable reports of N. vibex grazing and in the unlikely even that it did injest some algae, it's internal anatomy isn't adapted to process it.