What happened to the Baby snails

Lilly Moore

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I have a nano tank of just snails no hermits, crabs,fish or shrimp and the nassarius snails laid eggs 3 weeks ago but I don’t see any snails what happened
 

WheatToast

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I don't think Nassarius snail eggs have much success hatching in captivity, or, if they do, the babies are quickly consumed. I see their eggs quite frequently in my tank, but no babies.
Sorry to hijack the thread, but is that your horseshoe crab in your pfp?
 

ISpeakForTheSeas

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If I’m not mistaken, there is a planktonic stage for most marine snails that just gets sucked up into the filter. I’m pretty sure nassarius falls into that category.
Yeah, Nassarius larvae are pelagic veligers, so they wouldn't last long in the average tank between the filters, pumps, skimmers, predators, etc. OP, if you want to try rearing the snails, you'll need a separate grow-out tank that's pelagic larvae safe.
 

WheatToast

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And all advice is appreciated thank u
No problem! How are you caring for the horseshoe crab? These require deep, biodiverse sandbeds for food (or you can manually feed them) and cover and grow very large (19 inches long).
If I’m not mistaken, there is a planktonic stage for most marine snails that just gets sucked up into the filter. I’m pretty sure nassarius falls into that category.
+1. My tank doesn't have a "filter" (no socks, skimmer, etc.), so I guess most of my Nassarius babies succumb to predation.
 
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Lilly Moore

Lilly Moore

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I thought that the filter might be harmful so I swapped to a sponge filter in the snail tank
 
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Lilly Moore

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Our horseshoe crab is still small and we do have a lot of sand and our 200 gallon tank is our main tank besides that we have four other tanks in out house
 

ISpeakForTheSeas

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If your tank is safe for pelagic larvae, then my follow-up questions would be 1) what specific species of Nassarius snail are you working with, and 2 ) what are you feeding (or attempting to feed) the veligers when they hatch?
 
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Lilly Moore

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Nassarius distortus phytoplankton and mysis we also put in copepods but what’s the time period till u see them
 

ISpeakForTheSeas

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Nassarius distortus phytoplankton and mysis we also put in copepods but what’s the time period till u see them
Yeah, you probably won't see success in breeding these guys with that diet (you might, but odds are not in your favor) - various species of phytoplankton have been tried a number of times unsuccessfully in the rearing of different Nassarius species.

I know of three species of Nassarius that have been successfully aquacultured, two of which (N. vibex and N. obsoletus) were aquacultured using planktonic feeds (Phaeodactylum tricornutum and Nitzschia closterium) that were much more commonly available back in the 1900's, and the third (N. reticulatus) was cultured using a suspension feeder product called "Snow Reef" by SHG.

You can still find Phaeodactylum tricornutum available at a hefty price from UTEX, and you can find a number of Nitzschia spp. on the market too (though Nitzschia closterium is not one you'll likely find), but I'm not sure how well these feeds would work for N. distortus. Supposedly N. reticulatus may be reared exclusively on Nitzschia sp. or spp., but, to my knowledge, this hasn't been attempted again since it was first attempted back in the 1930's.

Anyway, if you're wanting to try rearing N. distortus, these foods (Phaeodactylum tricornutum, Nitzschia spp., and Snow Reef) are likely your best bets for successful rearing foods. I've heard it can take anywhere from 3-15 days for the eggs to hatch (this is likely dependent on a number of different factors), and it takes about 1-2 months for the snails to go from hatchling veligers to settled snails (the time depends on the species and the chemistry of the available substrate in your tank for certain; it likely depends on the water chemistry too, but I don't know this one for sure; it also varies from species to species, with the average time for one being 35 days, the average time for another being 45 days, etc.). So, the total rearing time for these guys is likely 1.5-2.5 months.

One important thing to keep in mind if you try rearing these guys, though, is that high algae growth in the tank may inhibit larval snail movements and result in them dying, so it may be important to keep nutrient levels/algae growth under control throughout the rearing process.

I'm not sure how long it would take for copepods to establish in the tank (it depends on a number of different factors - water chemistry, food availability, etc.).
 

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