Difference between Pyramid Snails

[SuperNerd]

Anyone know how to tell whether one is the clam parasite versus the snail parasite?

Thanks in advance.

 

[SuperNerd]

nvm.

Thanks to page 2 of this thread I guess it is not really possible.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=623318&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

 

[greenbean36191]

There may not be any difference, since at least in our tanks they may be the same species.

 

[SuperNerd]

Does that mean they can switch back and forth between who they choose as hosts?

 

[LeslieH]

Some pyramidellids are highly specialized feeders & will only prey on one species. Others are less particular and will feed on a wide variety of hosts even if they prefer one or two species. There are over 600 species in the family and even experts can find them difficult to identify.

 

[greenbean36191]

Like Leslie said, it depends on the species of pyramid. For a long time the belief was that they were all very host specific, but apparently that isn't entirely true. There has been at least one feeding trial where they offered various mollusks to a few species of pyramids (including prey they would never encounter in the wild) and they all fed on between 60 and 90 something percent of the prey species offered. There is next to nothing in the literature about the feeding preferences of pyrams listed as parasites of Tridacna or trochoideans.

 

[LeslieH]

Oops. left out a zero..... there's over 6000 species in over 350 genera in the family. Makes it a little hard to identify shells without specimens, locality, or host data.