eBay Snails beware

[knockout]

Hello all! I really hope this is old news to you as it was not to me!

the "Nassarius" snail called Nassarius, Ilyanassa or Ilyanassarius obsoleta.

Two weeks ago I had a customer ask about my pricing on Nassarius snails, when I told him my price he said nah I can get them much cheaper on eBay, curious I asked him to point me in the direction of such deal.

So I purchased a 300 pack of snails from the seller and waited for the snails, what a great deal $0.08 per snail.

I got the snails they were perfectly healthy and quite large to my surprise.
Into my "HOME TANKS" they went, since I was in dire need of a clean up crew from my recent re-do and never have the time to grab them from the store.

Today a friend visit me and panics when sees hundreds of these critters crawling around in my tanks and quickly inform me that not only are these snails not reef safe they are actually not human safe :skull:
after searching the web found this article and I am now beside myself

I understand everyone has to make a living but putting peoples health at risk, where does it end

I have begun removing these snails from my tanks and hopefully nothing else is needed and I can get to all of these.

here is an article I really hope you have come across.
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-11/mg/index.php


BIG NOTE:
NO TANK IN MY STORE HAVE SEEN THESE SNAILS AND THEY HAVE NOT GONE TO ANYONE BUT ME AND FOR THAT I AM THANKFUL.
I am so glad I have been so busy over the last two weeks since I received these preparing for two swaps and at the store that I had not order these for the store, I thought this was a great deal and was ready to pass the savings on to my customer
another one of those too good to be true stories ah!

 

[CheckSix187]

Wow man thanks for the info, holy blank thats some creepy stuff about the parasites they host.

 

[Bryceandmandy]

Wow, fantastic article i bookmarked that one. I have a nassarius that im worried about now.

 

[juan319]

thank you

 

[spacenyc]

thanks

one of the most important posts i ve read on mr

 

[TRIGGERMAN]

I really don't think it's that serious..they said you could get a rash for a week..something about they might carry parasites. GUESS what? EVERY fish in your tank and probably all the critters too carry parasites. That's right ALL..the ocean is full of them. They might not be visible but every fish has stuff in it/on it. That's just the circle of life, microscopic organisms are everywhere.

Not to mention that was a ridiculously long article to finally get to the point..you made it out to be a lot more serious than it is.

 

[fcamargo6thave]

Thanks for the info, i thought it was informative. Like trigger said almost everything in the ocean carries parasites but now that i read this article, now i know to look out for them.

 

[guarda]

Do they eat red turf algae or cyano?

 

[ed4]

Thank you for sharing the info!

I disagree with some, as this can cause some sort of health hazard. Given options, I would think most people would like to make some sort of informed decision to obtain something safer.

At least I would...

 

[Kendall]

I was in dire need of a clean up crew from my recent re-do and never have the time to grab them from the store.

Thanks for the info, but this statement is very confusing. How much less time did you spend ordering off e-bay, than if you ordered from your supplier? Sorry, but this doesn't make sense.

 

[DREUTZ]

Thought of this when I read this thread...

http://www.spike.com/video-clips/v7wki4/1000-ways-to-die-brain-worms

 

[e.muehlbauer]

I have been keeping Ilyanassa obsoleta in my tank for over 12 years. I collect them myself in Peconic Bay. I have never had a problem with them. I get swimmers itch regularly during the summer and fall, from wading in the water while fishing. (I've noticed that it comes when I am in the water on an outgoing tide, after a heavy rain.) Its worse than poison ivy, and doesn't respond well to steroid creams/gels. Hell, it doesn't respond at all. But, I have learned to prevent it with an alcohol wash as soon as I get home. That said- I have ONLY gotten swimmer's itch from wading in the water. I have NEVER gotten it from my tank. They are definitely useless for algae clean-up, but very good as scavengers. My sand bed appears to be full of life. I no longer seem to have the ability to support mandarins, so the snails may be a factor...but for many, many years mandarins and Ilyanassa thrived in my tank, and I only have about 3 snails. (I had blamed a series of wrasses for eliminating my mandarin food. That said though, I have seen clusters of tiny copepods on the glass on my tank, despite the fact that my Ilyanassa also climb the tank. The article was very informative, and I certainly agree that given their invasive nature they shouldn't be sold. However, I have never seen them sold in stores. The Nassarius snails I see always look different.

 

[lfsmarineguy]

Trigger, while there is some truth to your statement about the level of infectious organisms in our aquariums, I have to say that dismissing them as not being a big deal is naive. The fact is that you never know how you yourself will react to something in your tank until it happens. By this I mean that everyone has a different immune system and you can't tell with any amount of certainty what level of reaction you will have to something. Some people might have a mild reaction to certain compounds while others suffer a complete shutdown. When a potentially harmful thing is brought to your attention you should always take it seriously. Our tanks house potentially lethal strains of bacteria and while only a small percentage of us will ever be directly effected by it, the danger isn't any less serious for the rest.

Up until about 2 years ago I would have been right there dismissing this thread with a quick read and a click on the "Home" button. To be honest, without looking into this article any further I'd have to say that there probably isn't much to fear as far as personal injury from the flukes, just some minor irritation that passes quickly. That being said, everything you read about potential hazards in this hobby should always be taken seriously. Be it palytoxin or any of the deadly bacteria that reside in our tanks to seemingly innocuous articles like this, all should be taken atleast somewhat seriously.

If you want pics and some first hand information about how bad it can get when you let your guard down, PM me I'd be more than happy to share my emergency room experience.

Don't think of this as being berated, that isn't my intention at all. This is just me trying to make people more aware of the risks most of us ignore, because I used to be guilty of the same myself.

 

[Bryceandmandy]

Trigger, while there is some truth to your statement about the level of infectious organisms in our aquariums, I have to say that dismissing them as not being a big deal is naive. The fact is that you never know how you yourself will react to something in your tank until it happens. By this I mean that everyone has a different immune system and you can't tell with any amount of certainty what level of reaction you will have to something. Some people might have a mild reaction to certain compounds while others suffer a complete shutdown. When a potentially harmful thing is brought to your attention you should always take it seriously. Our tanks house potentially lethal strains of bacteria and while only a small percentage of us will ever be directly effected by it, the danger isn't any less serious for the rest.

Up until about 2 years ago I would have been right there dismissing this thread with a quick read and a click on the "Home" button. To be honest, without looking into this article any further I'd have to say that there probably isn't much to fear as far as personal injury from the flukes, just some minor irritation that passes quickly. That being said, everything you read about potential hazards in this hobby should always be taken seriously. Be it palytoxin or any of the deadly bacteria that reside in our tanks to seemingly innocuous articles like this, all should be taken atleast somewhat seriously.

If you want pics and some first hand information about how bad it can get when you let your guard down, PM me I'd be more than happy to share my emergency room experience.

Don't think of this as being berated, that isn't my intention at all. This is just me trying to make people more aware of the risks most of us ignore, because I used to be guilty of the same myself.

very well put, im interested in what happened to you. I worked at an lfs by me for a few years up until recently actually. a few of my coworkers as well as myself have had a couple run ins with palytoxin....not a fun time when its in your eyes. i hope i dont come off as wierd but everything about this hobby interests me, even the dangerous parts. I guess i just havent shaken that boyhood wonder and amazement i feel when i look at the interactions in that box of water. this kind of topic brings to mind a phrase i heard a while ago: " we know more about the surface of the moon than we do the ocean". i believe that was phillipe cousteau...son of jacques cousteau.

 

[lfsmarineguy]

Bryce, since you are in the business you can probably understand what happened better than most. Simply, I was handling live rock from an established tank like I had done a thousand times before (no gloves of course). Never had a second thought about what could possibly happen since the worst most of us get is slight irritation, maybe a little swelling but it goes away in a day or so without any treatment. This particular time my hand was irritated the next day, no problem. Later that afternoon it seemed like the swelling was still present and was a little red, no biggie I figured I would just keep an eye on it. That night I noticed my hand was redder and more swollen and it was starting to eminate a dull throbbing pain. At that point I started to worry because this was new territory for me not having had an experience like this in the past, I knew something was wrong (1am at this point). I figured if it's still like this in the morning I'll go to the doctor and get checked out. By 3am I noticed the infection started to streak up my arm in a serpentine line just shy of my elbow. That's when I drove myself to the ER and the nurse at the front desk let me jump past everyone else in the waiting room (which made me start to worry, just a little). I immediately got a bed and 2 IV bags of broad spectrum antibiotics one was Doxycycline but I forget the other. Doxy,, is not a plesent IV to get btw and they gave me morphine to dull the pain from both my hand and the IV. In the morning they gave me a second round of the same IVs (sans morphine :grumpy. Talking to the infectious disease expert, she told me that had I waited even a few more hours with a bacteria that aggressive I could have easily been looking at amputation of my right arm or even death if the blood poisoning had gotten any worse. An eye opening experience to say the least. In this case my experience is what could have potentially harmed me, ignoring the situation until I knew there was a definite problem rather than seeking medical attention before it got to that point. They let me leave the next day after making me eat their pancakes (terrible) with a 10 day prescription for Cyprofloxacin which they told me is what is used to treat anthrax. After all that, they still weren't sure what bacteria was responsible. It was unpleasant and a valuable lesson and I will always bring it up whenever the subject comes up because it's easy to dismiss until it happens and then you might not have as much time as you would think before it's too late.

that's why even when something like these snails is brought up, glossing over it is just a bad habit to get into.

 

[TRIGGERMAN]

Trigger, while there is some truth to your statement about the level of infectious organisms in our aquariums, I have to say that dismissing them as not being a big deal is naive. The fact is that you never know how you yourself will react to something in your tank until it happens. By this I mean that everyone has a different immune system and you can't tell with any amount of certainty what level of reaction you will have to something. Some people might have a mild reaction to certain compounds while others suffer a complete shutdown. When a potentially harmful thing is brought to your attention you should always take it seriously. Our tanks house potentially lethal strains of bacteria and while only a small percentage of us will ever be directly effected by it, the danger isn't any less serious for the rest.

Up until about 2 years ago I would have been right there dismissing this thread with a quick read and a click on the "Home" button. To be honest, without looking into this article any further I'd have to say that there probably isn't much to fear as far as personal injury from the flukes, just some minor irritation that passes quickly. That being said, everything you read about potential hazards in this hobby should always be taken seriously. Be it palytoxin or any of the deadly bacteria that reside in our tanks to seemingly innocuous articles like this, all should be taken atleast somewhat seriously.

If you want pics and some first hand information about how bad it can get when you let your guard down, PM me I'd be more than happy to share my emergency room experience.

Don't think of this as being berated, that isn't my intention at all. This is just me trying to make people more aware of the risks most of us ignore, because I used to be guilty of the same myself.

There's a lot of truth to my statement..it's a fact. I don't dismiss any warning in this hobby by any means. I'm just saying that it's a little ridiculous to make it sound like this is such a big deal that you could die from it or something when it's not. You go from talking about snails to an unknown bacteria it's apples and oranges. We were discussing about snails that's the issue not the plague that got you. I am well aware that the ocean is a giant mystery and saltwater tanks are indeed dangerous between poison from fish, corals and who knows what type of bacteria that got your arm and whatever else is out there. I get it, I do I'm not saying this is the safest hobby. As a matter of fact you are probably safer sky diving than dremel fragging zoos. Honestly though to sit there and say that I am "naive" because I dismiss a paranoid statement is a bit much. If we are worried about getting a rash from parasites in snails then we should be worried about getting them from fish and everything else as well. Why have anything living at all since it all carries germs and parasites maybe we should have plastic fish and rubber corals.

 

[fishman1069]

Wow man, thats messed up!! Did you get cut or feel anything while handling the rock?

 

[Bryceandmandy]

Bryce, since you are in the business you can probably understand what happened better than most. Simply, I was handling live rock from an established tank like I had done a thousand times before (no gloves of course). Never had a second thought about what could possibly happen since the worst most of us get is slight irritation, maybe a little swelling but it goes away in a day or so without any treatment. This particular time my hand was irritated the next day, no problem. Later that afternoon it seemed like the swelling was still present and was a little red, no biggie I figured I would just keep an eye on it. That night I noticed my hand was redder and more swollen and it was starting to eminate a dull throbbing pain. At that point I started to worry because this was new territory for me not having had an experience like this in the past, I knew something was wrong (1am at this point). I figured if it's still like this in the morning I'll go to the doctor and get checked out. By 3am I noticed the infection started to streak up my arm in a serpentine line just shy of my elbow. That's when I drove myself to the ER and the nurse at the front desk let me jump past everyone else in the waiting room (which made me start to worry, just a little). I immediately got a bed and 2 IV bags of broad spectrum antibiotics one was Doxycycline but I forget the other. Doxy,, is not a plesent IV to get btw and they gave me morphine to dull the pain from both my hand and the IV. In the morning they gave me a second round of the same IVs (sans morphine :grumpy. Talking to the infectious disease expert, she told me that had I waited even a few more hours with a bacteria that aggressive I could have easily been looking at amputation of my right arm or even death if the blood poisoning had gotten any worse. An eye opening experience to say the least. In this case my experience is what could have potentially harmed me, ignoring the situation until I knew there was a definite problem rather than seeking medical attention before it got to that point. They let me leave the next day after making me eat their pancakes (terrible) with a 10 day prescription for Cyprofloxacin which they told me is what is used to treat anthrax. After all that, they still weren't sure what bacteria was responsible. It was unpleasant and a valuable lesson and I will always bring it up whenever the subject comes up because it's easy to dismiss until it happens and then you might not have as much time as you would think before it's too late.

that's why even when something like these snails is brought up, glossing over it is just a bad habit to get into.

I have to say reading that makes me grateful for my good fortune, and very sorry for what happened to you. Ive moved countless pounds of liverock from the box without gloves which i admit is slightly foolish. I always made sure i looked and saw where i was putting my hands but ive been poked and stuck many times with a little painful even itchy irritation that lasted on a few hours. Ive been stung by carpet anemones once or twice with one ocasion that was bad enough to get all my insurance information together for ER. My skin was pock marked where the tentacles got me and the colors ranged from yellow to a deep red and purple. It was itchy and burned like crazy, the scariest part was when it began to feel like pins and needles. All in all i took a benadryl, and did my best to relax. After about a half hour i was okay. By the next day it was ad if it hadnt happened. I love the reef hobby because youre exposed to so many different walks of life and youre able to create as close to a marine eco system as you can. Buuut i feel that we know very little about many of these organisms and there are manythings out there that we can and cannot see that retain the ability hurt us badly. Our immune systems react differently to different ailments or stimuli like what you described. People shouldnt panic but take precautions and be careful. Im sure you could agree. Thanks for sharing your story, although harrowing im sure it imparted a bit of knowledge and wisdom to the rest of us.

Edit: the carpet wasmint green colored but the kicker was that it was not only massive but got me on the inside of the forearm and in between my fingers.

 

[batt600]

I bought thouse snails a few time off of ebay and never had a problem with me or my tank.

 

[Alex]

Interesting read, we must always be careful.