ID needed on a Snail.

Kimdive

New member
If anyone can help me regarding this snail.
I think it is responsible for my feather duster losing it's crown, then leaving his tube and then last but not least, taking his head off:-(
Now the worm is recuperating in a safe house, till I can find out if this snail is the culprit.

190671-1_4.jpg
 
I can't really see enough detail to give you a positive ID on the snail, but it appears to be either a fasciolariid or a buccinid, both of which are predatory. It should either eat worms or other snails, maybe both.

Cheers,


Don
 
Thanks guy's, you have been a great help:-)
Last night I put the snail in the sump and freed the worm, which this morning is still in the same place I put him:-) and has nearly completed his tube, so there is light at the end of the tube LOL.
Pagojoe, who or what are you killing snails for, if you don't mind me asking.

Thanks again
 
No, it's not a Turbo snail. Those are mostly wider than their height, and they don't have longitudinal ribs or siphonal canals. I'm pretty sure it's in the family with the Horse Conchs and Tulip Snails, the Fasciolariidae. It's probably in the subfamily Peristerniinae, but I really can't see enough detail to give you a species-level ID. If you want to take it out of the tank and photograph it in a dish of water I might be able to give you a positive ID on it. You'd need a pic looking straight down on the dorsum, and one of the apertural side, preferably from about the same angle as these pics:

http://www.gastropods.com/Taxon_pages/TN_Family_FASCIOLARIIDAE_PERISTERNIINAE.html

You may be able to see a good match on that page without taking pics, since most of the common species in the subfamily are depicted. As far as I know, all of those species are predatory. I'm assuming your snail is a Red Sea species?

Cheers,



Don
 
No, I meant can he kill a Turbo snail? As he has disappeared from my boyfriends sump and suddenly a Turbo snail has died:-(
 
Gee, sorry, I misread your last post. I guess that's what I get for trying to answer messages on my break at work. Yes, it could kill a Turbo snail.

Cheers,



Don
 
Don, I don't suppose you can tell me exactly how this little b*****d can kill a turbo snail that has a covering to his entrance?
 
The Turbo is relatively safe if it's sealed up in its shell, although some predators have different strategies for killing them anyway. Some can drill the shell using acidic saliva in combination with their radula, and some cover the aperture and use the "pry" method to slowly wedge the shell open as the prey animal tries to extend to move or breathe, or as it tires of pulling against the attacker. Most attacks are chemical, though, in combination with the tactics I just mentioned. Many species, not just the Fasciolariidae, produce chemicals that paralyze their prey, or anaesthetize them to the point that they can't resist predation. Some then inject digestive enzymes that dissolve the prey animal so that it can be sucked out, while others simply extract the animal and swallow it. I'm not sure which tactic your snail uses, but it probably attacks the snail chemically as it opens to breathe, having covered the aperture, and forces it to breathe in the paralytic toxin. I'd guess your snail then extracts and eats the animal without further chemical assistance, but I might be wrong. I'll see if I can find out which is most likely.

Of course, the predator snails can't be overly successful at killing a species, or they'd wipe it out. Conversely, the predator can't be overly unsuccessful, either, or that species wouldn't survive. More of the balance you see every day on the reefs and in the natural world.

Cheers,



Don
 
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