Bumble Bee Snails who has them? Ever had issues with them being reefsafe? How long have you had them? What other snails do you keep with them? What sort of corals in general do you keep?
i have a few of them in my nano tank. with few other assorted snail and corals. i have had them in 90 but they did not seem to last long with hermit crabs. what have you heard about them. they seem to just hang around sand and rocks and never seen them bother anything.
Heard varying opinions from good sources. Looking for more opinions.
I kept them once a few years back. They didn’t last very long while I had other snails that were thriving. They may tend to target feed very selectively but I can’t speak for my tanks having ideal conditions ten years ago.
I was in Fishman on Concord Pike yesterday. They had a few bumblebee snails in stock all around the store. I don’t think they were intentionally being sold but I’m sure you could buy a couple.
I don’t want to spread any misinformation but I remember reading somewhere that they may not be reef safe. I can’t recall where I read that which is probably the definition of misinformation.
They were also selling some nice looking “Plum Crazy Acro” frags. They had a really nice chocolate-color to them which I really don’t have in any other coral in my tank. $29 for a frag of it was just a little steep for me.
well, unfortunately or not, i bought 6 from eca over the weekend. what should i look for??
first off i want to say that i have never kept bumble bee snails, but i have done some reading about them…
i think like some starfish, they are suspected of devouring beneficial things in the sand bed…
also in Dr. Shimeks inverts book, he has them listed as not-reef safe…
i talked to Matt at ECA and he told me they arent truely reef safe…he had them in a tank will only live rock and nem.'s…
when i went to TFP this past weekend they advised me that the little buggers are reef safe…
i believe they may be reef safe in the aspect of they dont mess with corals, but maybe they could harm the chemistry of the tank by eliminating other beneficial creatures…
this is only my assumption/opinion
i have two in my 120 mixed reef. had them in a 55 mixed before. they are about 8 mos in the system. never had any problem and like Nass. Snails they will clean up anything that dies but dont come running like Nass. do. Usually they are cruising the rock work or glass never had any problems with corals/fish/inverts do to these snails.
I think i put about 6 in my nano almost a year ago. I havent counted but i belive most of them are still alive. I havent noticed any issues at all with them. I rarely see them on the sandbed at all, most of the time they are on the liverock.
I bought about 6 over a year ago still see probably 4 wondering on the glass and rock.
I went to ECA about 6 weeks ago just to recharge my cleanup crew wanted a mixture of different snails. Was talking with the older gentleman there and he stated the bumble bee snails are carnivores. But did not know what they ate excatly. This thread brought me back to them as this weekend while doing tank maintainence I realized I did not see any pods in the tank or fuge. Usually they are all over the place. I wonder if they prey on pods?
Mike
Popular hobby litterature does not agree on the “reefsafeness” if that is a word of this animal. All this talk about experiments brings me back to some experiments I always wanted to run a couple years ago. Sometime during the next year I hope to return to this thread after doing some more research.
For time being if anyone else has any experience, even if you kept them and saw nothing, please chime in.
bumble bee snails are carnivores
i think omnivore would be more appropriate and probably describes most of the animals that make up our cleanup crew. one of the most voracious animal-eating snails ive every seen is the nassarious. these guys remind me of Jaws the way the explode out of the sandbed when i feed and if you ever lose a fish it wont last long with these guys. very hardy and very aggressive. i rarely see a hermit strutting around in a vibex shell >LOL< if there was a snail that wrecked havoc on a tanks biodiversity as it relates to the microfauna in our sandbeds these guys would be suspect #1 for me but ive got nothing to substantiate it. as far as pods, dont think you have to worry about snails eating the kinds of pods we are familiar with and see. its the microfauna we dont see that you have to worry about.