Please identify - good or bad?

[schmuttis]

We found this creature on some new corals we just got. Can someone tell us if this is a good or bad thing? We extracted it from our quarantine tank. <br><br>

<br><br>Notice the feelers in this photo?<br><br>

<br><br>upside down in a cup <br><br>

 

[Cousteau1]

It looks like some type of mollusks maybe a small abolone? Hard to tell but the shell looks similar.

 

[Cousteau1]

It looks like some type of mollusks maybe a small abalone? Hard to tell but the shell looks similar.

 

[pagojoe]

The pics won't come up on my computer. Can't find your .org site

 

[mastou]

Could look like a Stomatella snail, if yes it is a great little algae eater

/Magnus

 

[chrisstie]

I agree with Stomatella snail

 

[schmuttis]

Thanks all for your help. We put him back in our quarantine tank.

 

[pagojoe]

I finally got your pics to come up. I think it's an abalone instead of a Stomatella, although I could verify that if you had taken a dorsal photo in the cup, rather than upside down. If you have a dorsal closeup, you might add it to the thread?

Cheers,



Don

 

[schmuttis]

So the really big question is whether a abalone snail is also safe for a reef tank. I'll definitely post more pictures if one is safe and the other isn't. As you have seen I don't have the best of cameras.

 

[pagojoe]

Yes, of all the ID options for your snail, ALL of them are reef safe. Abalones have pretty big appetites for algae, and change the color of their shells based on the color of the algae they eat. Also, abalones, particularly the small species, are much rarer tank inhabitants than Stomatella snails or related trochids. They aren't extremely rare in the wild, but they are very well camouflaged, and are hard to spot and collect. The animals of several of the small species have only rarely been photographed. Yours looks like it may be a juvenile Haliotis ovina, however, which is probably the most common of the tropical abalones that show up in reef tanks. It's an interesting animal in any case.

Cheers,


Don

 

[Danny07204]

They are great. They are fast too.