Killer snail

[Neokane]

Cross post from reef discussion
It has been suggested this is a whelk snail.. looking to get confirmation. Also wanting to find out if there is any use for this guy (besides killing all my other snails)??

Ok.. So I believe the accused snail is a mexican turbo snail..
A few weeks ago I ordered some spiny star astraea snails and some regular turbo snails..

Well in the first weeks.. the star snails seemed to drop dead. Needless to say they became decorations for my sea urchin who wears the shells around..

Now a few weeks later.. the regular turbo snails seem to be doing the same thing.. Well I caught the mexican turbo snail attached to the regular turbo snail. I separated and found the regular turbo snail was in pieces.

Are the mexican turbo snails know for this???

For now he is in sump prison..


Untitled by Neokane, on Flickr


Untitled by Neokane, on Flickr

 

[Adetia]

That doesn't look like my Mexican turbos...or any of the images when you do a Google image search on Mexican turbo snail.

 

[Neokane]

I looked up images of a whelk snail.. and it looks a whelk snail.

 

[pagojoe]

Yeah, it's a buccinid whelk. It's his job to eat other snails.

Cheers,



Don

 

[Raptor72]

Sneaky little bastards! One snuck in on a snail purchase and killed about 15 astreas.

 

[Neokane]

Yeah, it's a buccinid whelk. It's his job to eat other snails.

Cheers,



Don

Thanks... He sure did a good job at that... I don't feel so bad now if I just throw him out.