Is this true nassarius snail? Killed my fish?

[Fishingandreefing]

Last night I found this nassarius snail leeching on the anthias. The anthias was fine during the day and I know some of them likes to laying on the sand bed near the rocks at night. I have heard about that they kill fish, just try to id this snail before I toss it.

The picture with 1 snail was the one that leeching on the anthias.

I went ahead and scooped the other few different kind out just on the safe side.

Thanks

 

[Mikeltee]

Nassarius do not hunt live fish. They sift sand in the daytime and climb the glass at night. I am not sure what that other snail is but I'm anxious to find out.

 

[Brit’s Fish]

The other one looks to be a whelk of some sort but I’m not an expert so I couldn’t tell you which kind. I just know that they generally have tails with two points.

 

[Tired]

I've not heard of whelks or similar snails killing healthy fish. Cone snails hunt and kill fish, and any scavenger may take advantage of a weakened fish to eat it alive (one of the reasons why I'm a proponent of euthanizing old fish when they start to decline rather than letting them die of "natural" causes- natural is often nasty), but the only predatory whelks and similar I'm aware of prey on snails, worms, and clams. Likely the anthias died of something else.

Whatever the snail is, if it's a pest you want dead, try to kill it quickly. A good hard smash with a brick on a hard surface should do the trick. Can't help you with the ID- my only thought is maybe a different species of nassarius than the usual.

 

[VintageReefer]

Most likely the fish died for other reasons and the snail was doing it’s job cleaning up remains before it rots and affects the tank negatively

 

[WheatToast]

The other one looks to be a whelk of some sort but I’m not an expert so I couldn’t tell you which kind. I just know that they generally have tails with two points.

The speckled one is Nassarius margaritifer, a popular species that many, including myself, have had no problems with. Many Nassarius snails have that "two-pronged tail thingy" and I am unaware of any whelks that have it as well (though I know comparatively little about whelks).

Last night I found this nassarius snail leeching on the anthias. The anthias was fine during the day and I know some of them likes to laying on the sand bed near the rocks at night. I have heard about that they kill fish, just try to id this snail before I toss it.

The picture with 1 snail was the one that leeching on the anthias.

I went ahead and scooped the other few different kind out just on the safe side.

Thanks

The other snail is a species I have yet to own/positively identify. @ISpeakForTheSeas might know more.

 

[Fishingandreefing]

The fish was alive. I scooped him out, put him in a container with a bubbler and he stayed alive for couple of hours. On the safe side, I tossed the snail.

 

[Fishingandreefing]

Fish was eating today and I don’t suspect it was sick. Now I am
Debating what to do with the rest.

Below picture, caught about 4-5.

 

[WheatToast]

Fish was eating today and I don’t suspect it was sick. Now I am
Debating what to do with the rest.

Below picture, caught about 4-5.

Again, this species is Nassarius margaritifer, a beneficial one. I am 100% certain the other one was a Nassarius snail as well, though I have recently learned that some Nassarius snails are indeed predatory.

 

[Fishingandreefing]

Again, this species is Nassarius margaritifer, a beneficial one. I am 100% certain the other one was a Nassarius snail as well, though I have recently learned that some Nassarius snails are indeed predatory.

Well, I rather sacrifice the snail than another fish. So it went with the anthias R.I.P. so I prob keep the rest, they’re different kind.

 

[Fishingandreefing]

So here’s what I found and I strongly believe the nassarius snail attacked my anthias.

 

[Fishingandreefing]

Petco is definitely right this time, NOT REEF SAFE

 

[WheatToast]

So here’s what I found and I strongly believe the nassarius snail attacked my anthias.

Petco is definitely right this time, NOT REEF SAFE

I would take these with a grain of salt. Issues with Nassarius snails attacking healthy livestock are basically unheard of/may regard misidentifications of other, similar snails. Did you ever notice anything out of the ordinary with regard to the anthias?

 

[Fishingandreefing]

I would take these with a grain of salt. Issues with Nassarius snails attacking healthy livestock are basically unheard of/may regard misidentifications of other, similar snails. Did you ever notice anything out of the ordinary with regard to the anthias?

Nope. All healthy during the day. Imagine if you asleep so deep and got attacked by an animal or something similar. A few of my anthias like to sleep on the sand bed near rocks and corals base. Who knows if the nassarius got that poison we don’t know. There’s a lot of unknown but I am sticking to it.

 

[WheatToast]

Nope. All healthy during the day. Imagine if you asleep so deep and got attacked by an animal or something similar. A few of my anthias like to sleep on the sand bed near rocks and corals base. Who knows if the nassarius got that poison we don’t know. There’s a lot of unknown but I am sticking to it.

Even if the Nassarius are to blame, I am adamant that, as living animals, the trash is not where they belong. Do you have a sump where you could banish them/could you salvage them?

 

[Tired]

Nassarius are scavengers, not predators. Think of it this way; if you had found the anthias dying without the snails anywhere near it, would you suspect the snails? You see this a lot with bristleworms- they don't eat healthy corals, but people see them eating dying corals and think they're responsible when they really aren't.

Also, reef safe and reef inhabitant safe are two different things. Damsels don't become not reef safe for being potentially aggressive towards other fish.

 

[MexiReefer]

Not unheard that healthy fish just die overnight and nassarius just scanvenge over the body. I have kept a more than dense population of nassarius in my deep sand bed and never really have an evidence of them killing healthy fish.

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

@ISpeakForTheSeas?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

The other snail is a species I have yet to own/positively identify. @ISpeakForTheSeas might know more.

Unfortunately, I'm only familiar with a handful of Nassarius spp. at this point (there are so many species in the genus that it's a bit daunting to want to start looking into them seriously), but I can say that I suspect this snail is a different species than the Petco snail above:

The closest I know to this snail at the moment is Nassarius graphiterus, and I'm not super confident that it's the same species (again, tons of species in the genus). However, as mentioned, the vast majority of Nassarius snails are scavengers/opportunistic predators rather than true predators (and even the ones I've seen deemed "true predators" don't seem to actually be very highly predatory; they seem quite lazy about getting their prey), and these are not an exception.

The Petco snail above I've seen most commonly called Tongan Nassarius and referred to as Nassarius distortus; given the enormous variation between specimens that I've seen under both of these names, I'm hesitant to accept them all as the same species.

Even the ones that I've seen with the most evidence of predation (which I'd recommend as sump species) still seemed to either only "actively" (in quotes because I can't confirm how healthy the prey were before they were caught) hunt worms or vulnerable prey (such as other, smaller snails or moribund inverts), and these likely still prefer dead things.

No Nassarius species should be (I'm not even sure they'd be capable of) going around hunting healthy fish; it would be a very high risk activity with a very low probability of success, and most predation in the wild is basically about weighing risk/reward and the odds of succeeding.

With proper food availability, I doubt many of even the more predatory ones would choose to hunt instead of just eat some pellets/frozen/etc.; without proper food availability, I'd expect to see them going after other snails/each other before they starve, as the vast majority of snails (including Nassarius snails) just aren't equipped to take out anything other than a snail or bivalve.

All of that said, I'd consider things like the fish's age, disease, diet, etc. as the culprit here instead of the snail.


TLDR; The fish was most likely either dead or dying, and the snails just scavenged it - it's incredibly unlikely they would try to or be capable of taking out a healthy fish.

 

[Kzang]

Last night I found this nassarius snail leeching on the anthias. The anthias was fine during the day and I know some of them likes to laying on the sand bed near the rocks at night. I have heard about that they kill fish, just try to id this snail before I toss it.

The picture with 1 snail was the one that leeching on the anthias.

I went ahead and scooped the other few different kind out just on the safe side.

Thanks

That isn't a nass snail. Its a whelk. Look a the siphon, if it looks tattooed, its a whelk. good article.

Whelk versus Nassarius | Melev's Reef

www.melevsreef.com