How Often do you see your nassarius?

[ecas12]

I haven't seen my three nassarius snails in a couple weeks. Is it possible they died underneath the substrate or would they come out looking for food before that happened? I have a pretty bad bacterial outbreak that has been covering my sandbed quickly, could that have caused them to die under the sand? I have other inverts in the tank, including other snails and shrimp that are totally fine.

 

[DaJMasta]

Feed and look for them, otherwise it's worth a look after dark as they will often roam around at night. They are pretty hardy, so I wouldn't expect a lot to kill them, but it's possible something did.

 

[TokenReefer]

Every night and only occasionally during the day. Tiny little things

 

[ecas12]

Feed and look for them, otherwise it's worth a look after dark as they will often roam around at night. They are pretty hardy, so I wouldn't expect a lot to kill them, but it's possible something did.

Thing is when I first had them they came out right when the lights went out and laid eggs on my glass, but I haven't seen them do that in awhile. Occasionally I would see them stick their tube out of the sand as well but haven't seen that either. I don't want to go digging for them and stress them out/disturb them.

 

[Jason Scalise]

can you not see their 'snorkel' in the sand anywhere?
A piece of protein (small piece of raw meat, fish, etc) clipped on to something to keep it put should draw them out (along with all of your CUC)....especially after lights of out.

 

[kevgib67]

They should pop out of the sand when food is put in the tank. You are feeding fish or corals? Is this a newly cycled tank where you just introduced inverts first and haven’t added corals or fish yet?

 

[merkmerk73]

Following the thread because mine are a little more hidden than they used to be, and I don't see them on the sand.

For a while they were popping out as soon as I fed the tank.

 

[Lionfish hunter]

I haven't seen my three nassarius snails in a couple weeks. Is it possible they died underneath the substrate or would they come out looking for food before that happened? I have a pretty bad bacterial outbreak that has been covering my sandbed quickly, could that have caused them to die under the sand? I have other inverts in the tank, including other snails and shrimp that are totally fine.

Actually just saw one of mine a few minutes ago for the first time in 3 or 4 months.

 

[ecas12]

They should pop out of the sand when food is put in the tank. You are feeding fish or corals? Is this a newly cycled tank where you just introduced inverts first and haven’t added corals or fish yet?

Tank has been cycled since August. Currently only fish, none are invertebrate eaters (2 clowns, starry blenny, foxface, pintail wrasse, and YWG). I have had inverts for awhile now (2 months), not many since I didn't have crazy algae growth, but was starting to hit the ugly stage and wanted some help with keeping the tank clean. Currently in the tank are 3 nassarius (if they are still alive), 2 prickly cerith, 4 ninja star, 3 blue leg hermit, 3 other larger hermit crabs, 1 skunk cleaner, and a tiger pistol, 75 gal tank.

Just to answer others as well, I used to see the "snorkels" pretty frequently, a couple would come out at night and lay eggs too for the first month or so, and then a week ago after a water change they decided to poke out again, but haven't seen any activity since.

I was away for about a week and a half and when I got back my sand looked like an alien hell-scape covered in what I think are diatoms and cyano, and one of my ninja stars (and maybe another), along with a trochus I haven't seen in a few weeks, I believe are dead. Trying to sort through the outbreak now but I figured lack of presence from the nassarius plus a couple deaths implied the nassarius hadn't made it either. Parameters aren't unbelievably high either, but trying to bring them down. Have seen all the hermits walking around, and both shrimp are fine.

I will try to feed later at night once the lights start to dim and see I can get them to come out.

 

[JZ199]

I'll see them late at night, or when I feed actual foods, if I feed pellets they don't come up lol

 

[BVF]

Every day…their snorkels are always up, and they surface at feeding time.

 

[Nano_Man]

These are great I’ve had some in a tank for a year now . When I feed my fish they pop up out the sand looking for left over food . Weird but nice to see them moving the sand bed .