Monster Eater Verry Destructive

[jasdavis09]

I found what I thoght was some sort of snail on one of my mushroom rocks a few months ago. It has a intresting shell that has a mixtrue of black and white on it. Then I noticed my mushrooms dying rapidly I thought it was some sort of chem war far from the other tank mates. last night when I got home I looked in my tank and allmost all of my shrooms where done on this one rock, then I saw this shell agian so I pulled it of the rock. The lil buger is nothing like a snail at all. I tried to take some pics to post but I could not get a good shot of it. It had a black and white shell but where you would expect to find the snail part it had a hard cone like thing growing. when I pulled on the cone a small part broke. when I set the shell on its back this evill little claw like thing came out like it was trying to flip its self back over. I have never seen anything like this before. I know its tuff without pics but can someone tell me what this might of been.

 

[Plankt0s]

Welk.

 

[jasdavis09]

WELK?

 

[scrmbld33]

whelk..... Most often, these whelks eat clams--usually one a month. With its large foot, the whelk pries open the clam's shell. Then, with the clam shell held open by the edge of its own shell, the whelk sends its proboscis and toothed, tongue-like radula inside to rasp and eat the softer "meat."

 

[Tang Salad]

Sundial snail. They are zoanthid predators.

Do a search to confirm the ID, but from you great description, I'm pretty sure that's what it is.

 

[scrmbld33]

id remove it if you havent already

 

[Plankt0s]

I was thinking sundial snail til he mentioned the claw thing that it was using to flip itself over. conchs have them too but conchs are reef safe.

 

[scrmbld33]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9194860#post9194860 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by biowerks
I was thinking sundial snail til he mentioned the claw thing that it was using to flip itself over. conchs have them too but conchs are reef safe.

me too

 

[jasdavis09]

I removed it last night. It might be a whelk from looking at the pics on line but I am not quite shure I know one thing it did some big time damage in a short amount of time. I hope my mushrooms can recupe. Do you guys know of anything I can do to help them?

 

[nosferatu51]

I just found one of those Sundial snails in my predator tank the other day and was simply shocked to have found a living snail in a tank with a porc puffer for the last 6 months or so! I also happened to have a small batch of zoos in that tank that I didn't want in my reef tank. I assumed that their disappearance had more to do with something about the predator tank being less than ideal for coral growth (lighting, etc). Hmmm, guess I was wrong! I'll just let him continue to hang out in there since there's nothing else for it to harm now.