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Bumble Bee Snail (Pusiostoma mendicaria)
Bumble Bee Snail
Please Note: Due to variations within species, your item may not look identical to the image provided. Approximate size range may also vary between individual specimen.
Please Note: Due to variations within species, your item may not look identical to the image provided. Approximate size range may also vary between individual specimen.
Bumble Bee Snail (Pusiostoma mendicaria)
Additional locales and sizes may be available!
Additional locales and sizes may be available!

Quick Stats

Care Level Easy
Temperament Peaceful
Color Form Tan
Diet Herbivore
Reef Compatible Yes
Water Conditions 72-78° F, dKH 8-12, pH 8.1-8.4, sg 1.023-1.025
Max. Size 1½"
Family Trochidae
Supplements Calcium, Trace Elements
Compatibility View Chart
What do these Quick Stats mean? Click here for more information
Care Level Easy
Temperament Peaceful
Color Form Tan
Diet Herbivore
Reef Compatible Yes
Water Conditions 72-78° F, dKH 8-12, pH 8.1-8.4, sg 1.023-1.025
Max. Size 1½"
Family Trochidae
Supplements Calcium, Trace Elements
Compatibility View Chart
What do these Quick Stats mean? Click here for more information

Overview

The tiny Bumble Bee Snail benefits most marine reef aquariums in big ways. Heralded for their small size and beautiful coloration, Pusiostoma mendicaria can get into small crevices and tight locations between rockwork. Here, they clean away detritus, including uneaten meaty foods and decomposing organisms. This tiny member of the Buccinidae family also burrows into your sand bed, consumes sand-dwelling worms, and helps aerate your substrate. Plus, with its striking black shell, striped in elegant white to yellow bands, the Bumble Bee Snail is indeed beautiful to observe.

For best care, offer ample hiding places with large areas to roam. The Bumble Bee Snail prefers to consume foods off of live rock and deep sand beds where it can forage for food undisturbed. Like other invertebrates, the Bumble Bee Snail is sensitive to copper-based medications, high nitrate levels, and even the slightest fluctuation in water parameters.

Though peaceful, keep in mind that the Bumble Bee Snail is a carnivore. If there is insufficient food, the Bumble Bee Snail may feed on other snails in your aquarium or indiscriminately consume polychaetes whether beneficial or the more troublesome bristleworm. In well-established systems, most Bumble Bee Snails do not require supplemental feeding. However, if sufficient food sources are unavailable, supplement their diet with offerings of meaty foods, including finely chopped brine or mysis shrimp and frozen meaty foods.

The Bumble Bee Snail is extremely difficult to breed in the aquarium, partly because there are no distinguishing characteristics between Bumble Bee Snail sexes.

Approximate Purchase Size: 1/4" to 1/2"

Customer Testimonials

Ted Handley Vancouver , WA



Bumble Bee Snails are super cool! They can get the slime out of the tiny corners, and are very quick for snails.
Jimmy Cusic Dallas , TX
I have a dozen of these little guys, but I seldom see them during the day. When the lights go off at night, though, they "wake up" and eventually cover my live rock.
Yili Yang Hackettstown , NJ
You will really see these little guys work if something dies. When my Coral Banded shrimp died, the body never had time to decompose and ruin my water, the BB snails converged on the body super fast and cleaned it down to just the shells. I think they provide a very unique and needed service to my tank.
Joe Thorstensen Jefferson , WI
Great addition to my tank. I only have one, but it survived two tank redo's. He did eat a small piece of coral left over from my reef tank.
1-4 of 4 testimonials

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