bad whelks... what do they eat?

[formsix]

I'm fairly certain I have nassarius snails, columbellids, AND some of the "bad" whelks in my tank. It's full of Tampa Bay Saltwater goodies, hence the ridiculous variety of snails.

Anyway, I don't mind having extra clean up crew members, and I plan on keeping the tank fairly well fed. No interest in clams. What else might the bad whelks eat? Will they eat the astrea snails I currently have? What about if I put in a few big trochus snails? Will they touch LPS corals? I'm more interested in keeping those than zoas, and I think the whelks might eat the more polyp-y corals like zoas.

Basically, can I let these guys live in the DT, or do I really want to make an effort to sump them?

 

[Calappidae]

We need pics, some whelks will eat other snails or some will eat corals, or some will flat out hunt anything breathing.

 

[pagojoe]

Trochus are algae grazers and won't intentionally touch coral polyps. Most of the "bad" whelks that people find are snail eaters. Some may also eat clams, barnacles, worms, carrion, or even rarely anemones. There are other snails that feed on corals, from several different families, but none that I know of are "true" whelks, which are in the family Buccinidae (or at least the superfamily Buccinoidea). Not all buccinids are bad guys, though.


Cheers,



Don

 

[71Percent]

I've had some issues with Welks. Few hitchhiked on some Florida rock I got and proceeded to hunt in my tank for a while before I captured them. The final straw was when one drilled into a clam that also hitchhiked on the rock (and for which I grew fond of) and killed it. Seemed like they are smarter than other snails and almost hid from me at times.