First Dendro Predator

[ReefMonger]

Well I was checking out my dendros today and saw this guy and plucked him off. It is a parasitic snail of some sort. Its really cool the mantle on this guy is the same pattern as the dendro I pulled him off.

 

[slapshot]

OK now that is sweet. Glad you got him out though.

 

[curlykid]

put em in the fuge!

 

[Western_reefer]

Set up a tiny 1 cup tank for it.

 

[uhuru]

Too bad these guys have to be so beautiful. I remember a crab I found on my red dendro, it actually took some polyps and camouflaged itself with them. Unfortunately I lost the dendro due to a bacterial bloom.

 

[SanJuan]

That guy at first sight looks squishy,
awesome looking snail too bad it's a predator.

 

[fishnerd]

looks like a cowrie, most are specialized feeders good thing you found him

Bryan

 

[LeslieH]

looks like a cowrie, most are specialized feeders good thing you found him Bryan

Close! It's in the related family Ovulidae all members of which are obligate parasites on cnidarians, mostly on soft corals, leathers, & black corals. They always match their hosts to the point of being invisible. The best match I could find is Habuprionovolva umbilicata which is always found on Dendronephthya. In umbilicata all the papillae are white while on this one some of them are the same color as the lines. It's a pity that you have to chose between keeping your dendro healthy and feeding this. If you want to get rid of it I know a specialist on the group who would like it.

 

[SanJuan]

My guess would have been Primovula bellocqae
but Leslie knows.

 

[LeslieH]

Not really - I'm just looking at pictures for a good match. My one advantage is that a very very nice guy wave gave me a big book on ovulids.

I don't think it's Primovula bellocqae though. The only live animal pic I could find on the web ( http://www.saltcorner.com/AquariumLibrary/browsespecies.php?CritterID=2788) looks like it might be mis-identified because the shape of the shell doesn't match the accurately identified pic in the book, or this one http://www.gastropods.com/2/Shell_6152.shtml. See how the shells are much more elongate at the tips than the live animal's shell? Also, bellocqae is found in Atlantic areas off Morocco, the Canary Islands, and Brazil, at depths of 100-300 m - not exactly typical collecting areas! Incidentally, according to my book P. bellocqae is now considered to be the same as Pseudosimnia juanjosensii. Since P. juanjosensii was described first that name is the one to use.