Nassarius Snail (Nassarius vibex)

The nassarius snails in my refugium seemed unaffected by the tank crash. However, I only saw one moving nassarius snail in my main tank.

The snails are now in my current system.

I have added about 20 more nassarius snails to the system (some to the main tank and some to the display refugium).

It has been brought to my attention that nassarius snails feed entirely on detritus and will not touch most species of algae. Therefore, I will be supplementing them with another sand-stirring species in the near future.

The detrivorous nassarius snail spends most of its time burrowing through the sand-bed looking for debris to consume. It can sense the addition of food to the tank with it's proboscus/siphon-tube and will quickly dig itself out the sand to feed before returning to the sand-bed once again. The snail typically doesn't grow beyond 0.75", has an estimated two year life-span, and is extremely difficult to breed in captivity.

I have added about 20 of these snails to the tank. It is fairly interesting to see them all suddenly burrow out of the sand whenever I feed the fish.