are these pyramidal snails?

playerfive

New member
Last night, I found about 20 rice size, white, conical snails on the sides of my tank. In this tank I have two very large tridacnid clams.

Concerned that these may be the infamous pyramidal snails, I toughly checked to see if my clams had any snails on them. There were only two hiding on the shells.

Does this probably mean that these snails are not pyramids? I was under the impression that pyramidal snails stayed close to their host, which is clearly not the case here.

Please help, I’m scared for my clam :(
 
Re: are these pyramidal snails?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13709819#post13709819 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by playerfive
I�m scared for my clam :(

i would be too.

where were the snails on the clams shell?? ( grazing the shell / hiding below / under the mantle )

have you checked the snails in your tank for pyramids??


due to location it sounds like the ones on the glass are a harmless grazer know as a rissoid snail. hopefully the ones on the clams shell were just confused and lost.

i would continue to check the shells at night ( pyramids are nocturnal ) and if they reappear you will have to start manually removing them. if they stay to the glass and leave your mollusc's alone then they are just part or the CUC. it is possible that you have both, so keep checking and let us know how it turns out.

HTH
 
There are a bunch that look just like the pyram snails. If you dont see them sucking on the mantle dont worry about them.
 
Although I did not find any snails on the clams themselves, there were at least a hundred in total on the glass around the clam...so I am still a little concerned here is a pic of a couple of them
 
171702hitchhiker.jpg
 
i would say not, probably a harmless rissoid. if they are on the glass and not on the clams you are fine. :)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13853977#post13853977 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by johnnybravo234
If you had that many pyramidial snails in your tank that squamosa would be dead.

I second that... Has to be something alts with that many of them your clam should be dead or close to it.


nice clam..
 
You may have both pyramidellids and rissoids, but I'm betting the ones on the glass are harmless rissoids. See how the last whorl (the "lip" of the shell) extends slightly beyond the normal outline of the shell, making it look like it bulges at the bottom? That's typical of many species of rissoids.

Cheers,



Don
 
To be absolutely certain...

pull a few of them out - take a magnifying glass - check and look at the lid/operculum and see if there is one (pyrams don't have one).

Similarly - if you look at the apex/tip of the shell - if the shells don't whorl straight together - you've got pyrams.

Now whether these are pyrams that prey on snails or prey on clams - don't know.

Anyways - the other option is to mail them to dr ron if he's willing to take them to id.

btw - [welcome]
 
The danger with my generalizations, and Dr. Shimek's, and just about everyone else's, is that there are usually exceptions. Some pyramidellids have operc's. The protoconch whorls being 90 degrees off the teleoconch whorls are probably the best method to distinguish between pyramidellids and rissoids, although that requires some magnification (either before or after you take macro photos).

Cheers,



Don
 
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