Nassarius snails-feeding?

[chauwall]

So my handful of nassarius snails emerge from the sandbed when there is food around but usually they just hang out on the top for like a few minutes then burrow back down. My question is do they need to be fed manually or do they find food at night when I'm not looking? Thanks.

 

[jennm]

They are scavengers. They are also omnivores so the smell of food will bring them up out of the sand to investigate it.

No I don't think they need supplemental feeding - it's their job to forage around the sand to find their dinner.

Jenn

 

[hackman72]

AugustaSalty;402649 wrote: they find food at night, i've had mine for years and have never fed them directly. They will disappear a dead fish before you have time to know its dead though.

I didn't know they were that good...lol. I need to get a few more. The only thing I don't like is the inability to get a semi-accurate "head" count to know how many I actually have.

 

[chauwall]

Cool. Do they tend to congregate as well? I dropped 3 in on one side of the tank and 2 on the other side. And they are all hanging out near each other.

Hackman-they show their little antennae above the sand so you can get an idea for count.

 

[jennm]

Chau, I've observed that they do. We get them 50-100 at a time and when I'm trying to find some to sell, I tend to find them in bunches under the sand. Where there's one, there are usually more right close by.

Of course, dropping a bit of food in the tank prompts them to surface, so it's easy to lure them out too - and they come out in groups too.

Jenn

 

[chauwall]

Thanks Jenn!