Nassarius snail immediately ate a margarita snail.. should I be worried?

Dad2Wyatt

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Added some inverts yesterday. 5 Hermits, 5 margarita snails, and 5 nassarius snails.

immediately upon acclimating and adding them to the tank, one of the nassarius snails slid over the largest margarita snail(go figure) and immediately attached itself. I wasn’t sure if this was normal so I let it play it while I took care of some other things. Came back a little while later to the nassarius snail burrowed and a completely empty margarita snail shell. Obviously it was murdered RIP snail, but do I have anything to worry about with my other margarita snails? So far they have not ventured off of the rock(probably saw what happened to the other guy)

but in all seriousness, is this normal?
 

Jeffcb

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It may have been an empty shell. I have bought empty shells before with the seller thinking it was a live one.

Margaritas if I am not mistaken are cold water snails. Not sure.
 
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Dad2Wyatt

Dad2Wyatt

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It may have been an empty shell. I have bought empty shells before with the seller thinking it was a live one.

Margaritas if I am not mistaken are cold water snails. Not sure.
I did have a larger empty shell but I saw the snail when putting him in, and located the other shell just be sure I wasn’t crazy lol

I’m thinking it could have possibly been dead before entering the tank as it did not move at all during the entire process
 
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Dad2Wyatt

Dad2Wyatt

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Two possibilities, IMO. One is the snail was already dead — Nassarius will go after dead CUC, and clean them up for you. The other is it could’ve been a whelk and not a Nassarius.
I’m leaning towards it already being dead. The margarita did not move at all during the process and considering the snail went right over and eventually burrowed I will say it is a nassarius! Just making sure I wasn’t endangering my other guys. Now if I can keep this one from constantly flipping himself over and staying there I won’t be worried anymore
 

Tamberav

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They are colder water snails and their life span is dramatically reduced in reef tanks. It was probably already dying.
 
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Dad2Wyatt

Dad2Wyatt

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Two possibilities, IMO. One is the snail was already dead — Nassarius will go after dead CUC, and clean them up for you. The other is it could’ve been a whelk and not a Nassarius.
I’m second guessing now. Haven’t Seen this guy in a while but he’s the only one not burrowed in the sand… Nass or whelk?
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Lyss

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He answered the question for me by climbing up on this rock. Do I need to take him out to save my other inverts?
I’m not convinced it’s a whelk — the shape of its shell looks like Nassarius. Mine sometimes go on the rocks when scavenging, and I’ve seen them on the glass occasionally (they climb all the way to the top to get masstick), but they always go to the sand a bury themselves at some point. I would keep an eye on it and if it definitely never buried itself then maybe remove it.
 

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