are there such things as bad snails?

[sabazerehi]

are there snails that are actually bad for a reef tank or fish? if so is there a website that has pics of them to see if someone has a bad one or not?

 

[reefnetworth]

if you plan on having SPS in your tank, stay away from Mexican Turbo snails. they can be quite destrucive, because they crawl all over everything.
not to mention they can grow to size of a golfball in just a few years, which means you will need more algae for them to survive.

heaven help your parameters if one dies.

 

[jdieck]

Most whelks, cowry, piramids and sun dials are predatory also some like the cones (textiles) are very poisonous and can sting.
for more detail see:
http://home2.pacific.net.ph/~sweetyummy42/Hitchsnails.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cone_snail

 

[pagojoe]

For just about every living thing you might find in a reef tank, there is a type of mollusc that will eat it, with the possible exception of a couple of genera of sea slugs and maybe some of the polyclad flatworms. Everything else is potential prey. It doesn't make the snails bad, but if you want to keep a certain type of animal in your tank, you probably don't want snails that prey on them. There are no real comprehensive lists of predator snails, but there are several websites that may be helpful.

http://www.melevsreef.com/id/snails.html

http://home2.pacific.net.ph/~sweetyummy42/
(click on site map, and follow the links)

Good luck!


Don