What happened to my Tonga nassarius snail?

[PurpleMonkey]

I came home from work today and did my usual tank stuff (look, test, feed, etc) and I noticed that there was an empty tonga nassarius snail shell on the sand. I had two originally. My first reaction was to test (1.025, 22 deg C, 0 nh4, 0 no3, 0 no2, 8.3 ph) but everything looked fine.

The tank is 1 month old [29G Biocube, 2" sand, brs reefsaver rock, seed rock and sand from different local reefer tanks for diversity], was stable 0, 0, 0 before I added a CUC (3 cerith, 1 margarita, 3 blue leg hermit crabs, 2 (now 1) tonga nassarius. I added 2 green chromis yesturday. They are both happy and eating.

Based on above, I've come to the conclusion that one of the hermits somehow caught it and ate it. Just strikes me as odd as the tonga's are super quick and bigger than the hermits (2 are in .5" shells and tiny, 1 is in a 1" shell). I have seen 2 bristleworms in the tank (about 2" long) but I don't know if they could have got him.

What do you guys/girls think?

[papagimp]

hermit probably didn't eat it, it probably ripped it out of the shell in an attempt to get a bigger home and concluded it wasn't a good fit. bristles worms are quick about decimating a carcass. You may have only seen 2 but I bet you got more. hermits might have helped clean up the mess as well but just fyi, hermits are notorious for shell swappin with your favorite snails :P I quit buying the nicer fancier snails because of this. and stick to cheapies like astrea's and nassarius and ceriths. Their at risk for sure but don't drain my wallet as quickly when I have to replace them. I eventually got rid of any/all blue legged hermits and kept around a single scarlet hermit since I like him. But he still occasional took down an astrea.

[PurpleMonkey]

would they do that even if I have about 6-7 shells of different sizes available for them in the tank?

[papagimp]

yeah lol. having the extra shells help but they don't really "care" about your snails and a shell is a shell. Some people never have issues with em, others are "lucky" like me. I'm not saying 100% it was your hermits but given the info you gave, that's where my bet would go.

[OregonReefer]

If there's no body he was a snack... or possibly a home invasion, the snack being an afterthought

I'd line up the hermits and see if anyone IDs the culprit

[snorvich]

Which is why I don't use hermit crabs.

[rakabos]

I have seen my two skunk cleaner shrimps rip a snail apart when it fell down the sidewall of the tank. Also seen them attack a harlequin shrimp. So it could be anything really, you will never know unless u see it

[Lorenz725]

I got both snails and hermits and they live fine together. Just make sure you add enough food for your hermits to eat if there is not enough on the live rock.

[stingythingy45]

Big reason I have 0 crabs in my tank.And don't miss them at all.

[sponger0]

My hermit this past week took a shell from a tonga. Its a pretty shell but thats an expensive snail too lol

[snorvich]

Big reason I have 0 crabs in my tank.And don't miss them at all.

+1 on no crabs!! :uzi:

[janalta]

Be careful who you blame....actually caught one of my nassarious murdering an astrea the other day. Would have blamed the hermits that were snacking on the remains if I hadn't noticed the nasserious trying to 'suck' him out of his shell earlier.

[Chris27]

I'm also not sure I would blame a tiny blue leg hermit in this situation.....Nassarius distortus are quite large and fast moving. Perhaps it just died or the move to your tank was a bit much for it?

[disc1]

Be careful who you blame....actually caught one of my nassarious murdering an astrea the other day. Would have blamed the hermits that were snacking on the remains if I hadn't noticed the nasserious trying to 'suck' him out of his shell earlier.

Nassarius are always the first to notice a dead or dying tank-mate. I would bet the astrea was already on his way out.

[Wolverine]

Nassarius are always the first to notice a dead or dying tank-mate. I would bet the astrea was already on his way out.

That would be my bet as well.

[stingythingy45]

Or the nassarius is really a preditory conch.
They've been sold as nassarius in the past.

[PurpleMonkey]

Thanks for the thoughts. I think I'm going to ditch the big hermit and see how the small guys do?

I feed the tank twice daily and there is algae growing on the seed rock for the hermits (growing on my rock too but a little short)

It is possible i just died. It had been in my tank for just over a week now.

[Sk8r]

nassarius and predatory whelks look so much alike they can be mistaken.
Just for the record, I have many and varied micro hermits, conch, nassarius snails, ceriths, and strombus grazers (a kind of very mini glass-climbing webspinning conch cousin)...plus a number of quite large bristleworms, mini brittle stars, etc, etc.
I've had my cleanup crew since 'o7, and have not lost any---the snails in fact reproduce; especially the grazers; and of course so do the bristleworms.

I'd look either to water quality or a snail that was on his way out when you bought him. Remember that snails need a decent calcium level to maintain their shells.

[stingythingy45]

FWIW,I had a hard time keeping snails for about the first 6 months.
After a tank ages some they seem to do quite well.I have some zebra trochus that are over 3 years and quite large.

[Sk8r]

Just a note: this species does not necessarily belong in a new tank: the sandbed doesn't have detritus enough, unless you overfeed, which isn't good either. Possibly it starved, between the lfs and a newer tank.

[boombox3]

My Blue Legged Hermit was an evil crab that dugged down to grab the Tonga Nassarius Snail, ate it and took its fancy shell. I thought it looked cool on him so I kept him. But after I added some turbo snails. He began having a taste for those. I got rid of him ASAP. No more crabs for me! One day I bought some Turbos was rushing to work so I said forget acclimating them so I dumped them in and left. Within 3 days they died :( Will never do that again. So it may be how you acclimate them too.

[PurpleMonkey]

Oh.. I guess it is possible that it could have starved :(

I drip acclimated over a period of 1.5 hrs.

[Sk8r]

Read the sticky above on new specimens. Never acclimate anything longer than 30 minutes.