Has anyone ever figured out the whelks?

[Bent]

So, are the black striped whelks that are loaded on the rock destructive or not?

Has anyone ever figured it out?

I watch mine pretty close and I've never seen them do anything except eat detritus. Some people swear they are predatory.

Any info?

 

[liverock]

So, are the black striped whelks that are loaded on the rock destructive or not?

Has anyone ever figured it out?

I watch mine pretty close and I've never seen them do anything except eat detritus. Some people swear they are predatory.

Any info?

Depends on your point of view.....everything eats everything else in the ocean...I have found if you keep everybody well fed there is relative peace ....usually.......rule of thumb is....if ya see him being bad.....a new zip code...

Richard TBS
www.tbsaltwater.com

 

[Dogshowgrl]

We tried the hands off method. In out 125, we had 45 hermits (all filling 2 inch shells and larger) and large, more than 6 large turbo snails, and some assorted other snails. Out tank had a leak and we had to do a big renovation; when the move was made the whelks were the only thing left. I am a huge over feeder and know there was no way they were hungry. They ended up about 3 inches and all four of them were relocated to someone else's house that knew the risk. I am a no mercy kind of person when it comes to whelks. It is just a personal experience, no science. But I would like to share because I wish someone had told me. Best of luck. If you like them, enjoy them. Just as long as you know them you can plan accordingly.

 

[Mishri]

I'd say if you can put some mysis or shrimp in a container, any critters feeding on that are potential threats.. That's how I decided to remove them, I was trying to trap gorilla crabs and I kept trapping them instead.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-11/rs/index.php

also, according to that, they are carnivores, so not really a benefit to your aquarium.

 

[Bent]

Yeah I found one raping a snail, so they all got evicted.

 

[adamwheel]

I reluctantly removed them. They're nocturnal, so get up and look for them in the middle of the night.
I'm seeing large crabs with gold eyes and black and white legs. They're cool but are getting too big to be of no concern. Enjoying every minute of it though.

 

[figuerres]

I reluctantly removed them. They're nocturnal, so get up and look for them in the middle of the night.
I'm seeing large crabs with gold eyes and black and white legs. They're cool but are getting too big to be of no concern. Enjoying every minute of it though.

look at the crabs "face" and see if they have a pair of things that look like miniature whiskers that the wave left, right,left, right ... if they do then they are filter feeding "Porcelain Crabs" and they are a good guy to keep as they are not going to eat coral or other good stuff.

if they do not then they may be stone crabs or gorilla crabs that should go.
but they may also be "Mithrax Crabs" and some folks keep them, other folks toss them.

see which ones you have before you start hunting them down for death squad time...

 

[adamwheel]

Definitely stone crabs