snail hitchiker...cone snail?

[Talonn]

Greetings,

I received my first shipment from TBS about 2 weeks ago and I had about a dozen small snails that I am not sure what they are. I have attached a few pics to see if anyone can ID them.

They look like a cone snail from pics i looked at and I had a couple ghost shrimp in the tank and these snails had them stunded in no time eating them...

If these are a type of cone snail are they reef safe?

Regards,
Chris

 

[boyooso]

I have tons of these guys... The are reef safe in my opinion. Mine have even multiplied in the tank. The largest I have are maybe about 1.25 inches long.

They are good little snails.

I can't offer you any mor einformation than that.

 

[Slatts]

I think there called whelks, I haven't seen them bother anything. Hey HD your great at this game, good or bad?

 

[hdtran]

Slatts,

I have a ton of these guys. They appear harmless to me, but in addition to 'grazing' rocks and glass, they are attracted to dead fish/shrimp (in other words, the Mantis trap will attract these guys )

I don't have a name for it yet (besides 'funny black cone-looking snail with a spotted snout'). I've tried to check the shell against the Florida Sanibel Island shell guide, but haven't seen a good match.

 

[Slatts]

I caught 5 within 15 minutes of putting the trap in. I wish the mantis was as attracted.

 

[delta]

fastest way to know if you actually got the bad crab in the hole is if these guys show, they loom around death

 

[KT & SJ]

nice aiptacia in the first picture try Joe's Juice it works for me. These hitchhikers are why we use a LR & LS QT. Actually we have a snail that we are trying to ID but we don't have a digital camera.

 

[kwl1763]

Whelks are somewhat reef safe. If you don't plan on keeping any clams they should be fine. They can kill a clam in a night. A buddy of mine had a beautiful golden maxima that was about 2.5". The day after he acclimated he woke in the middle of the night to find 7 whelks muching on it. At that point it was to late and he lost the clam. The clam was beautiful an healthy befor that so they were not just "cleaning up". They have been known to much on other snails occasionally also.

I remove one every time I see it because I want clams. I have taken out at least 50 so far.

As far as aiptasia. I had several of those also. Joe's juice works great. I have not had my peppermints go after them. Richard says there is no aiptasia there but either way it is a pest anenome that you want to get rid of before they multiply.

 

[Obi-dad]

I don't think that is a whelk, looks like some I have which after searching here seems like a 'columbellid' snail. Mine only eat algae and reproduce like crazy laying clear round sacks with 5-6 small white eggs in each sack.

 

[Talonn]

Per Richard there are no aiptasia in the Gulf or his LR. He has repeated this many times

I have been feeding the one in the picture and it has tripled in size and changed its color. Maybe the reason peppermint shrimp are not going for these is because they are not aiptasia, mine don't touch it either.

The color is a little off in that picture too, it is a lot more green then it looks. Also there has been no spreading. As for aiptasia I understand it is mostly brown in color.

Anyway I am still new and learning so I will watch this closely and hope no spreading occurs. I plan to keep this one so i will keep all updated as to what happens.

Talonn

 

[boyooso]

I have been watching my 'aiptasia' for almost 10 moths. I surely believe Ricahrd's statements.

These aren't 'aiptasia' at all

 

[kwl1763]

mejanos?

mejanos?

Could these be mejano anemone's then? From the greenish tint and due to the fact that is seems highly unlikely they are aiptasia that would be my guess.

 

[jasonross]

They are prob Curly-Cue Anemone I belive richard has Identified them before they are part of the Aiptasiidae family heres a link to them they are not aptasia completly safe..
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?siteid=23&pCatId=1703