Anyone have a picture of Pyramid Snails? Treatments?

[Doubledown]

I have 3 clams. The Derasa has slowly died over the past 2 weeks. I picked him up the other day to find tiny white snails on the bysal area. They were about 1-2 mm, white and very pointy.

I moved a Maxima that was next to the Derasa and found the same snails on it. I took a small toothbrush and tried to get as many of them off as possible.

If these are pyramids, what is the best treatment?

Thanks
Chris

 

[jasper24]

Yes they are pyramids and you have to pick them off. I have some also. I noticed my Crocea looking kind of unhappy several weeks ago. I pulled him out and there were 20 or so on him. I tweezered them all off and pulled my squamosa. It only had a couple on it. Now I have been pulling them out once a week or so after lights have been out for an hour or so. I am only getting 1 or 2 these days. On the bright side when I pull the clams to inspect them I put a couple of drops of DT's in the bowl to feed them a little. They do not seem to mind and look much better since the snails are coming off.

 

[dwiseman]

I just brought a deresa that looks very happy. What causes these pyramids, where do they come from and what do they look like? Would a fresh water bath less than 1 minute get rid of them?

 

[jasper24]

They are small the size of a grain of rice or smaller, white, and have a cone type shape. I have to look through a magnifying glass to tell sometimes if it is just substrate or a pyramid snail on my clam. The best time to catch them is an hour or more after lights out. I pull my clams and place them in a glass bowl of tank water to inspect them.

 

[mbbuna]

 

[dwiseman]

great picture now I know what to look for. THANKS

 

[Doubledown]

Yep, That's them.

Only treatment is physical removal? What about eggs, do they lay eggs like every other pest that invades our reef/sanity?

Thanks.

 

[Opcn]

they have natural predators, and six linned wrasses are one of them, or so I have been told, But physical removal is just another one of those reef hobiest chores.

 

[Reefcherie]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6625323#post6625323 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dwiseman
What causes these pyramids, where do they come from and what do they look like? Would a fresh water bath less than 1 minute get rid of them?

More often than not, these parasitic snails come in as hitchhikers - either on the purchased clam itself or from the purchase of other types of snails. In my case the culprit was big Mexican turbo snails. I would likely have spotted them w/ careful inspection of the new turbo snails. People that stress quarantine for all new critters are right on the money.

Daily manual removal (at night is best) is one way to get rid of them, but once an infestation looks like the picture above, this is no easy task! Addition of one of the fish known to prey on them is another method, but problematic if that fish is now competition for an existing fish (like a Mandarin) that relies upon pods in its diet (such as a 6-Line or 4-Line wrasse), since the fish that eat these snails also tend to eat amphipods and copepods. Addition of a juvenile Coris Wrasse has worked for people but then they end up wanting to get that fish out when it matures.

 

[Barry N.]

That pictures looks familiar.

Addition of a juvenile Coris Wrasse has worked for people but then they end up wanting to get that fish out when it matures.

This is the one that we have had luck with in the past.

 

[Reefcherie]

I think the problem I've heard w/ Coris gaimard is that they are reasonable fish as juveniles, but get to as much as 16" as adults and are both highly aggressive and prey on invertebrates at that size - much more suitable to a fish-only with a good sandbed than a reef as adults.

I opted for a 4-Line wrasse plus manual removal and that worked for me, but my tank is big enough to support both the wrasse and a fat mandarin dragonet.

 

[Barry N.]

they are reasonable fish as juveniles

Very True!

 

[Doubledown]

Update.

After manually removing as many of these little buggers I could find (over 2 days) and moving a Mystery Wrasse into the tank, the clam has regained much of it's original mantle extension and seems to be on a comeback.

Thank you all for your help.
Chris

 

[Reefcherie]

I hope the combo of the two forms of removal work out well for you. Those snails reproduce rather quickly, so you'll need to be vigilant on the manual removal until you consistently find no more, then you can increase the time between checks. I've never heard of a Mystery Wrasse eating these snails, so do please post an update after a while and let us know how effective the wrasse seems to be.

Hope you have egg crate or other cover....many of the wrasses are tricksy jumpers!

 

[AIMFish]

A twinspot wrasse will work very well. As mentioned about the Coris these guys don't stay small either.

 

[smy168]

seems like alot of people having problems with these snails lately...something happening during the collection or the shippment?

 

[mbbuna]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6683818#post6683818 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by smy168
seems like alot of people having problems with these snails lately...something happening during the collection or the shippment?

they've always been around. there just very hard to see, and your new clam may not have any adults but could have an egg sack. just another reason to QT everything

 

[bigeyetuna]

I saw a very tiny snail on my LR the other day, not sure if it is the same, but has a very similar shell. I don't have any CLAMs in my tank, but my question is:

Do these snails feed on other inhabitants besides Clams, ie SPS or LPS?

 

[mcox33]

I had one kill my clam a couple of years ago, had no clue what it was lfs said don't worry about it. But my clam died within a week.


I also found one (at least I think it was a snail on a bubble coral /fox coral (lfs thought it was a bubble when it came in, but the healthier it gets the more it looks like a fox, took a knife and popped him right off. Coral looks much happier now.

 

[mbbuna]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6684118#post6684118 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bigeyetuna
I saw a very tiny snail on my LR the other day, not sure if it is the same, but has a very similar shell. I don't have any CLAMs in my tank, but my question is:

Do these snails feed on other inhabitants besides Clams, ie SPS or LPS?

there are about 10,000 different types of Pyram snails. Some only feed on clams, some on clams and other things and some wont touch clams.but ive never heard of Pyrams feeding on LPS or SPS