Can someone ID this snail?

[mario8402]

These snails have been in my tank for a while and probably came in on some rock that I got fro somewhere.. never really gave them second thought since they looked ok to me.. well I got my reefcleaner order and put everything in and while looking at the tank tonight I noticed that the snails were going over to the new ones which are still closed up on the sand and looked like they were trying to eat the new ones .. I saw one go up to a nasarrius and they started fighting and then this one was on top and looked like it was trying to get in its shell... are these bad?
Ive only got a few of them from what I can tell so I took the 3 that I could see and put them in a net in my sump until I figure out if they are ok.

sorry for all the pics

 

[mario8402]

 

[pagojoe]

Hi Mario,

Your snails are Gemophos tinctus (at least by the latest, rapidly-changing generic assignment). They have historically been called "Pisania tincta" or "Cantharus tincta/tinctus/tinctum" with an occasional "Pollia tincta" thrown in. If you want to search for information on the species, the best name to search is "Pisania tincta" since that name was in use for a longer period of time.

One publication says that they are known to eat barnacles in one specific location in Florida. The paper read like they were trying to avoid generalizing about the diet of this animal, since it's in the buccinid whelk family, which usually eats other snails. Several aquarists on Reef Central have had these animals in their tanks, and witnessed them killing other molluscs. That's probably what yours were doing, and will probably kill your snails if you leave them in the tank. They are pretty snails though.

http://www.gastropods.com/8/Shell_3228.html

Cheers,



Don

 

[pagojoe]

Great ID pics, by the way.

 

[mario8402]

Thanks Don!
I have been searching most of the day also and came across this
http://www.melevsreef.com/id/whelk.html
http://www.melevsreef.com/id/whats_a_whelk.html
From the info provided by melevs seems its not a good one to have since it has the "tatooed" flesh that he describes...

awesome. lol

 

[johnmaloney]

i see thse whelks all the time, nice to know the species name. Hopefully you were able to get rid of them okay.