Moon Snails - Don't Buy

[Wayne Sallee]

There in a trend of the sales of moon snails being sold at
pet stores as sand sifters. They are caching on with
wholesalers, and pet stores as an easy sell, but don't buy
them. They are snail eaters. They will boor a tiny hole in
the shell of your snails, and suck out the body. When
there are no more snails for them to eat, they will die.

It's realy sad how so many pet stores, and wholesalers are
all about selling stuff that they know won't live, and
lying about them being good for the reef tank.

I know, there are many other examples, but this is a
recent one gaining momentom, so I wanted to give everyone
a heads up.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets

[Michael Lawford]

Thanks Wayne....

"Wayne Sallee" > wrote in message
...
> There in a trend of the sales of moon snails being sold at pet stores as
> sand sifters. They are caching on with wholesalers, and pet stores as an
> easy sell, but don't buy them. They are snail eaters. They will boor a
> tiny hole in the shell of your snails, and suck out the body. When there
> are no more snails for them to eat, they will die.
>
> It's realy sad how so many pet stores, and wholesalers are all about
> selling stuff that they know won't live, and lying about them being good
> for the reef tank.
>
> I know, there are many other examples, but this is a recent one gaining
> momentom, so I wanted to give everyone a heads up.
>
> Wayne Sallee
> Wayne's Pets
>

[miskairal]

Yeah, ta!

Michael Lawford wrote:
> Thanks Wayne....
>
> "Wayne Sallee" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>>There in a trend of the sales of moon snails being sold at pet stores as
>>sand sifters. They are caching on with wholesalers, and pet stores as an
>>easy sell, but don't buy them. They are snail eaters. They will boor a
>>tiny hole in the shell of your snails, and suck out the body. When there
>>are no more snails for them to eat, they will die.
>>
>>It's realy sad how so many pet stores, and wholesalers are all about
>>selling stuff that they know won't live, and lying about them being good
>>for the reef tank.
>>
>>I know, there are many other examples, but this is a recent one gaining
>>momentom, so I wanted to give everyone a heads up.
>>
>>Wayne Sallee
>>Wayne's Pets

>
>
>

[Kelsey Cummings]

Wayne Sallee wrote:
> There in a trend of the sales of moon snails being sold at pet stores as
> sand sifters. They are caching on with wholesalers, and pet stores as an
> easy sell, but don't buy them. They are snail eaters. They will boor a
> tiny hole in the shell of your snails, and suck out the body. When there
> are no more snails for them to eat, they will die.

They also get huge - baseball sized. They're native to Bodega Bay
(North CA Pacific Coastline!) - staple diet around here is clams.

-K

[Pszemol]

I do not see the problem in selling carnivorous snails in petstores...

You could imagine some snail-loving enthusiast of marine life
who likes to keep large snails in his tank and feed them with
live clams/oysters purchased on the Asian seafood market...

I see the problem in misinforming potential customers about
habits and diets of snails and them being sold as reef-safe.
But, to be honest, responsibility of the pet owner is to know the
animal before you decided to keep it, right ? You would not get
a domestic cat in a pet store and feed it with raw carrots, wouldn't you ?

Its a pitty so many people buy animals they do not know
anything about them.

"Wayne Sallee" > wrote in message ...
> There in a trend of the sales of moon snails being sold at
> pet stores as sand sifters. They are caching on with
> wholesalers, and pet stores as an easy sell, but don't buy
> them. They are snail eaters. They will boor a tiny hole in
> the shell of your snails, and suck out the body. When
> there are no more snails for them to eat, they will die.
>
> It's realy sad how so many pet stores, and wholesalers are
> all about selling stuff that they know won't live, and
> lying about them being good for the reef tank.
>
> I know, there are many other examples, but this is a
> recent one gaining momentom, so I wanted to give everyone
> a heads up.
>
> Wayne Sallee
> Wayne's Pets
>

[Jaime R-S]

Good tip!


jrs
"Wayne Sallee" > wrote in message
...
> There in a trend of the sales of moon snails being sold at pet stores as
> sand sifters. They are caching on with wholesalers, and pet stores as an
> easy sell, but don't buy them. They are snail eaters. They will boor a
> tiny hole in the shell of your snails, and suck out the body. When there
> are no more snails for them to eat, they will die.
>
> It's realy sad how so many pet stores, and wholesalers are all about
> selling stuff that they know won't live, and lying about them being good
> for the reef tank.
>
> I know, there are many other examples, but this is a recent one gaining
> momentom, so I wanted to give everyone a heads up.
>
> Wayne Sallee
> Wayne's Pets
>

[Billy]

"Pszemol" > wrote in message
...
>I do not see the problem in selling carnivorous snails in
>petstores...
>


Agree. Too many people want everything done for them. I feel that the
LFS's responsibility is mostly in selling healthy critters, and not
*nescesarily* warning every customer of every possible negative
impact of the crittter they're looking at.
However, giving *false* info, such as "these snails would make a
lovely addition to your reef tank, and eat all your algae!" is
another story entirely.

[Mark Henry]

Pszemol wrote:
>
> But, to be honest, responsibility of the pet owner is to know the
> animal before you decided to keep it, right ? You would not get
> a domestic cat in a pet store and feed it with raw carrots, wouldn't you ?
>

I once visited a pet store in Alabama that was selling some wierd hybrid
lynx/common house cat mix. It was a cute little thing (once you got
around the claws, teeth and attitude) and was selling faster thatn their
breeder could bring them in (hence the $750 price tag).

The problem that came out in the paper months later was that once these
cats grew up they wer'n't the timid house cat most people had hoped
for/expected - they were more on the carnivorous "I'm going to gouge
your eyes out for being in my territory, now feed me water buffelo you
big oaf!" sort of house cat.

In the end the breeder and pet store were stopped from selling the
animals, but were not requried to refund any money or pay compensatory
damages (several people were injured by the cats). The bigger shame is
that several owners simply abandoned these cats into the wild (ie parks
near their homes) where they ended up terrorizing people and killing pets.

That's the sort of lack of scrupples I hate to see. Sometimes it lack of
information on the part of the store workers (at $6.50/hr how much do
you think they care to learn) other times it's just them wanting to move
the product and pocket some cash.

mark h

[Wayne Sallee]

I would bet that they are probably found in a number of
countries. They are also found here in Florida.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



Kelsey Cummings wrote on 2/1/2006 3:45 PM:
> Wayne Sallee wrote:
>
>> There in a trend of the sales of moon snails being sold at pet stores
>> as sand sifters. They are caching on with wholesalers, and pet stores
>> as an easy sell, but don't buy them. They are snail eaters. They will
>> boor a tiny hole in the shell of your snails, and suck out the body.
>> When there are no more snails for them to eat, they will die.
>
>
> They also get huge - baseball sized. They're native to Bodega Bay
> (North CA Pacific Coastline!) - staple diet around here is clams.
>
> -K

[Wayne Sallee]

Yea, but how many pet stores that sell them, are going to
tell the customers that they are great sand sifters? And
how many people are going to buy a moon snail knowing that
it only eats snails, and most likely won't eat dead snail
meat? I've never seen any feeding responce from moon
snails towards anything dead offered to them.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



Pszemol wrote on 2/1/2006 4:32 PM:
> I do not see the problem in selling carnivorous snails in petstores...
>
> You could imagine some snail-loving enthusiast of marine life
> who likes to keep large snails in his tank and feed them with
> live clams/oysters purchased on the Asian seafood market...
>
> I see the problem in misinforming potential customers about
> habits and diets of snails and them being sold as reef-safe.
> But, to be honest, responsibility of the pet owner is to know the
> animal before you decided to keep it, right ? You would not get
> a domestic cat in a pet store and feed it with raw carrots, wouldn't you ?
>
> Its a pitty so many people buy animals they do not know
> anything about them.
>
> "Wayne Sallee" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>> There in a trend of the sales of moon snails being sold at pet stores
>> as sand sifters. They are caching on with wholesalers, and pet stores
>> as an easy sell, but don't buy them. They are snail eaters. They will
>> boor a tiny hole in the shell of your snails, and suck out the body.
>> When there are no more snails for them to eat, they will die.
>>
>> It's realy sad how so many pet stores, and wholesalers are all about
>> selling stuff that they know won't live, and lying about them being
>> good for the reef tank.
>>
>> I know, there are many other examples, but this is a recent one
>> gaining momentom, so I wanted to give everyone a heads up.
>>
>> Wayne Sallee
>> Wayne's Pets
>>

[Pszemol]

"Wayne Sallee" > wrote in message ...
> Yea, but how many pet stores that sell them, are going to
> tell the customers that they are great sand sifters?

How many pet stores that sell dragonette fish are going
to tell the customers that they need to have mature tank
with lots of live rock to support this fish ?
How many pet stores that sell octopuses are going to tell
the customers that they need dedicated species setup ?

The problem with this hobby is that many aquarists do not
want to make research on their own and relay solely on
the words from the store personel... many times misinformed
personel with a conflict of interest (goldfish+fishball example).
I put the responsibility of knowing animal requirements on
myself and blame only myself for some occurences of buying
an animal without enough research before the purchase.
I learned long time ago that personel in the fish stores is
the last to trust with such information. Don't get me wrong,
I am not saying all of them *intentionally* mislead customer
but there is a group who do. Most are simply misinfomed
and trying to act as experts pass this misinformation around.

Is it very easy to blame store personel: "you did not tell me".
But it is not right aproach. Of course, we could wish all
people working in petstores would have Phd in marine
zoology, but imagine end-user retail prices on animals
it would create.

> And how many people are going to buy a moon snail knowing
> that it only eats snails, and most likely won't eat dead snail
> meat? I've never seen any feeding responce from moon
> snails towards anything dead offered to them.

I am not sure what is the situation in your area, but here in
Chicagoland, we have many grocieries with LIVE seafood
available for human consumption. So you can buy *live*
clams, oysters, mussels, scallops in a great variety for such
carnivorous snail or octopus and feed it every day live seafood
if you want... I am not saying it will be cheap, but if the proper
care for the animal requires live feds then it is the hobbyist
responsibility to provide it for the animal...

[Tidepool Geek]

Howdy,

It seems to me that discussing whether or not a "moon snail" is
suitable for an aquarium is a bit like asking a haberdasher to gift
wrap an "item of clothing" as a gift. When the package is opened it
could contain a pair of Levis, a flannel shirt, or a flowered sundress
and, whatever it is, it may or may not be the appropriate size.

The animals that might be called 'true' moon snails are members of the
family Naticidae. As Wayne said, these are predators whose natural prey
is normally clams (although it seems likely that they would eat other
snails if that was all that was available).

They are not sand sifters as I understand the meaning of that term.
They could be considered as sand stirrers but, from what I've read
about the care and maintenance of a DSB, their activity is probably too
robust for a home tank. The way a moonsnail operates is to bury itself
and then proceed to bulldoze its way through the sand hunting for
dinner. The species that I'm familiar with is Lewis's Moonsnail
(Euspira lewisii). It's a coldwater species that moves a couple of feet
per hour while hunting and gets to 5.5 inches in diameter. I suspect
that most species are smaller but in general this family is fairly
large as snails go.

There are species of moonsnail from all over the world, including the
tropical areas so there's a reasonable chance that one could be kept in
a home aquarium but it seems doubtful that it would be a very useful or
attractive addition.

OTOH: I noticed that Drs. Foster & Smith are selling something called a
"Red-Footed Moonsnail" (Norrisia norrisii). This fellow is actually
part of an entirely different family (Trochidae). N. norrisii is a
herbivore and its natural food is the Giant Kelp (Macrocystis sp.)
although it might be willing to graze on other things. The big problem
here is that this is a cold water species that would be happiest below
60F and would die prematurely at tropical temps.

My own belief is that if you don't KNOW what something is and what its
needs are then you shouldn't buy it.

Gastropodically yours,

Alex

[Cindy]

Wayne Sallee typed:
> There in a trend of the sales of moon snails being sold at
> pet stores as sand sifters. They are caching on with
> wholesalers, and pet stores as an easy sell, but don't buy
> them. They are snail eaters. They will boor a tiny hole in
> the shell of your snails, and suck out the body. When
> there are no more snails for them to eat, they will die.
>
> It's realy sad how so many pet stores, and wholesalers are
> all about selling stuff that they know won't live, and
> lying about them being good for the reef tank.
>
> I know, there are many other examples, but this is a
> recent one gaining momentom, so I wanted to give everyone
> a heads up.
>
> Wayne Sallee
> Wayne's Pets
>

Thank you!
:)
Cindy