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DBTC - Nassarius vibex Snails

Past President
Joined
Feb 6, 2011
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Time to trim down the population! These Nassarius vibex snails are reproducing quickly.

Quick care information: Full size is approximately 1/4". Typically part of a clean-up crew, these are detrivores that will consume leftover food and dying organisms. They prefer a fine sand substrate to burrow in but will also climb glass and rocks, and although not optimal, can subsist in a bare-bottom tank. These snails exhibit some amusing behavior when they race across the sand during feeding time, and they appear to enjoy competitions where multiple snails will climb up the glass, detach, and fall to the sand. X-treme snail sports? :bigsmile:

I can produce 3 packs of a dozen snails each. Pickup at the upcoming swap on September 8th preferred.

Preference will be given to those who have HOB refugiums. In correspondence with GDawson, it seems that we both have reproducing nassarius populations, and we also both have refugiums that return water to the display by gravity instead of by pump. The nassarius life cycle is supposed to have a veliger larval stage that lasts several weeks, so it is possible that the lack of centrifugal pumps allows the veliger to survive. I would be interested to see if anyone can replicate breeding in their systems to pass these forward. I wasn't certain these are definitively Nassarius vibex, so I asked Dr. Ron Shimek to weigh in, and he believes that they are indeed Nassarius.


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[youtube]r2pYEqdHSSk[/youtube]
 
Guest
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Aug 1, 2012
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Very cool! I don't think the veliger will survive in my future tank build with the crazy flow, LoL.
 
Supporting Member
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Feb 3, 2008
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I could have taken some yesterday!
Where is the love, man? ;p
 
Past President
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E, didn't realize you wanted nassarius snails! These guys are prolific, so I'll have some for you the next time I see you.
 
Past President
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Mar 26, 2010
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I'd take some if no hob refugium people step up and you don't Hand them all off at the swap cause I can't be there. Cool dbtc!
 
Past President
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Sure thing, Mike! We will miss you at the swap!
 
Past President
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If anyone wants some nassarius at the upcoming BAP workshop on October 13th, I can scrounge up enough snails for a few more packs.
 
Past President
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Thanks David! Dumper them all in my 120. Hopefully they will take hold and reproduce in there!
 
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I may take you up on this, David. I'm contemplating setting up a 10g experiment to test the self-sustainable system without water changes so I'll need some species to populate the tank. I'll be sure to update you sometime at the end of this week or next week. I just need to pick up a few key items.
 
Past President
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Feb 6, 2011
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1,674
Mike - keeping my fingers crossed for the breeding!

Denzil - no hurry if you can't set up the 10g by next weekend, there's no mad demand for nassarius snails and it's looking like they'll remain prolific.
 
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