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View Full Version : Update from Colorado Breeders


zerillit
06-02-2008, 09:55 PM
We are the Colorado breeders from whom Brian and others have picked up some Nassarius babies (see other threads). We recently moved our extremely large specimens (3" - 4" yeah we know they're not supposed to be that large) from the refugium into the main tank. We had moved them down after we found them attacking some newly added clams. They only seem to bother them if the clams are unhealthy or stressed.

A couple of nights ago we found mama snail on the glass very still and determined that she was releasing a series of large egg sacks (1/2" disks) in a pattern on the front glass. We have attached photos showing mama with the eggs both on the glass and still inside her (pretty fuzzy, sorry)
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and another of the egg sacs in place on the glass afterwards...
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We also have one blue light shot of the mama so you can get an idea of her size. 189

Oddly enough none of our voracious tank inhabitants have disturbed the sacs. We run a deep sand bed both in the tank and in the refugium. We feed a broad variety of foods including mysis, krill, phytoplankton, cyclopeeze, oysters, shrimp, scallops, etc. We have a 140 Gallon tank and a 60 gallon fuge.

We have had some visitors tell us there is no way these are Nassarius so we are hoping for some clarification on the species identification along with any ideas on what we can expect with the eggs (incubation period, should we remove them to the refugium, etc.)

Keep up the good work DIBS and friends!

John and Terri
Thornton, CO

BrianPlankis
06-04-2008, 09:34 PM
Terri and John,

Good to see you two on here :) Not very likely to be a Nassarius and a different species from the DIBS Nassarius you collected for me from your tank for sure. I have asked our local snail expert to take a look at these pictures, hopefully he can narrow things down for you a little. He is pretty busy, so might be a week or two before he gets back to us.

If you feel up to the task you could take some pictures of the snail that would help our expert with the ID.

http://www.projectdibs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1520

I would leave the egg masses where they are and see how long it takes them to develop and hatch.

Take care!

Brian

Joe Thompson
06-04-2008, 11:04 PM
looks like some form of conch to me, often mistaken for nassarius as they have similar traits.

definately keep us posted on how the eggs develop!!