Please ID This Crustacean

[LPS_Blasto]

Looks like a snail attached to the side of this rock. But it doesn't move. It's attached. It is alive and I can see to little "antennae" peeking out. If you move the frag, the worm or slug inside retracts deeper into the shell. I can see the shadow of it's body inside the shell, and it is definitely alive. It responds to light and disturbances in the water.

 

[tahoe61]

I believe it is a vermetid worm

 

[LPS_Blasto]

Could be. I thought the vermetid worm formed a tube that helped it grow vertically up into the water?

This one seams to have a spiral shaped shell. It's not growing upward - so far.

But I'm not saying you are wrong. I really don't have a clue what it is.

 

[tahoe61]

I would look under worms Serpulidae, and at snails as the vermetid is considered a snail. Pictures of both are there, and if it is not one of the two you have a good chance of finding it on the link.

http://www.chucksaddiction.com/hitchhikers.html

 

[finsurgeon]

Vermetid snail... I have lots of them. I suggest you smash it or bite it or scrape it off with a screwdriver before it multiplies or hurts the coral next to it. I sure wish I'd smashed mine when it was only one.

 

[LPS_Blasto]

Yup, it's a vermetid snail. Found it in the link provided. Thank you very much.

It's dead. :uzi: I killed it. Not into reef pests.

 

[BEASTIEPENDENT]

They don't only grow upwards but sometimes in curves and spirals as here.

They are detritus feeders and don't harm anything, so no pest "“ there was absolutely no sense in killing it.

 

[LPS_Blasto]

From the link provided, as well as other research after a positive ID, I deemed it a pest. It's my tank. I removed it. There's a reason why I've been reefing for over 20yrs and never had an out break of any pests, such as aiptasia, or bubble algae, or asterina stars, or flatworms, or majano anemones ..... and the rotten list of horrible little reef wreckers goes on and on and on and on and on.........

When I find a solitary pest in my tank, I kill it. I don't wait for them to reproduce into plague proportions before I decide to do something about it.

You're certainly entitled to your opinion though. :wavehand: