"Dancing" wiggle snails? Why?

Tarantulady

Tarantulady

New Member
Why do the cerith snails dance? My tiny black ones used to all get together on one area of the glass (65 gallons) and they would "dance" by twisting and rocking the shells from side to side, while holding their foot in place on the glass. They'd all do it at once, but they stopped doing it a few months ago. Now I have what I believe are a different type of cerith snails (not black, similar size) and one started doing that strange twisting dance all by himself.

I don't see anything wrong with them, and they don't die after they've been dancing. They don't lay eggs when they're dancing either. I kept googling this and I can't find a single person talking about why snails twist themselves for no apparent reason.

Anyone seen/know of this behavior?
 
reefer gladness

reefer gladness

Well-Known Member
The trochus snails in my tank do the same. Two theories I'm aware of, one is that the twisting motion helps spread the gametes when they're breeding, the other is they are trying to rid themselves of some irritant on the shell.

I've seen my snails release gametes countless times when they weren't twisting though and seen them twisting just as many times without releasing gametes. So I'm thinking it's more often an irritant like vermetid snails, pyramid snails or maybe asterina stars.
 
Tarantulady

Tarantulady

New Member
I do have asterina stars in the tank, though I never see them stuck to the crabs. They mostly just stick to the rock and every once in a while I can see one stuck in my chaeto. The asterina stars I have are tiny and white with a small amount of green mottling on the back.

If they have parasites, I guess they are invisible. How the heck do you get rid of invisible snail parasites? At least none of my other snails dance.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top