Cerith Snails

I recently purchased two Cerith snails from my LFS and am wondering if
anyone else uses these snails as part of the clean up crew for their tanks.
I have a few questions relating to them and their activities. A few moments
after I put them into the tank (after acclimation), they burrowed into the
sand, is this normal? Due to their size, do these snails pose a threat to
disrupting the rocks on my reef setup? Also, about two hours after I put
these two snails into my tank I noticed a few long strands of mucus looking
"stuff" stringing from my LR in some spots and one strands coming from out
of the sand when the one snail was burrowing. Could this "stuff" be coming
from the snails? The strands were atleast 8 inches long and not much
thicker than a .5mm. They were off white colored and had bits of what
looked like fine gravel in them. I do not have any corals in my tank, so I
dont think there is any type of sexual reproduction occurring.
My setup is such: 36gal. w/ refugium. (Ecosystem* refugium with
Caulerpa)
Temp:78
Specific Gravity: 1.023-1.024
Ammonia-0
Nitrites- 0
Nitrates-0
Ph- 8.1 or 8.2
Phosphates- high (have not checked yet myself, but I brought a water
sample to my LFS due to outbreak of algae and they told me it was high, I
believe 2.00 mg/L)

My tank has only been set up for about a month w/ 45lbs LR, 7 blue-legged
hermits, 2 baby ocellaris clownfish.

Thank you for any help that can be provided- i am new to the hobby and tend
to get a bit nervous when something out of the ordinary is occurring in my
tank.. Thank you again.

"FornoW" wrote in message
news:hl7Yd.54884$s16.27267@trndny02...
I recently purchased two Cerith snails from my LFS and am wondering if
anyone else uses these snails as part of the clean up crew for their
tanks.
I have a few questions relating to them and their activities. A few
moments
after I put them into the tank (after acclimation), they burrowed into the
sand, is this normal?

Sure they aren't Nassarius snails?


Due to their size, do these snails pose a threat to
disrupting the rocks on my reef setup?

How big are they exactly?

LFSes routinely misidentify stuff.....are you sure you got Ceriths?


Also, about two hours after I put
these two snails into my tank I noticed a few long strands of mucus
looking
"stuff" stringing from my LR in some spots and one strands coming from out
of the sand when the one snail was burrowing. Could this "stuff" be
coming
from the snails? The strands were atleast 8 inches long and not much
thicker than a .5mm.

Whatever it is I'm sure it's nothing to worry about.



Thank you for any help that can be provided- i am new to the hobby and
tend
to get a bit nervous when something out of the ordinary is occurring in my
tank.. Thank you again.

I'm sure there's nothing disastrous impending.

"John Krempasky" wrote in message
...

"FornoW" wrote in message
news:hl7Yd.54884$s16.27267@trndny02...
I recently purchased two Cerith snails from my LFS and am
wondering if
anyone else uses these snails as part of the clean up crew for
their
tanks.
I have a few questions relating to them and their activities. A
few
moments
after I put them into the tank (after acclimation), they burrowed
into the
sand, is this normal?

Sure they aren't Nassarius snails?


Sound like Nassarius to me, as well.

billy