Snail ID Please (w/ pics)

[pagojoe]

Nope, never heard of that kind of behavior in ovulids, but I doubt it's trying to catch food with the slime. It's more likely that it's prepping the potential food source for consumption, I guess, but I never heard of ovulids doing that either. I've seen several different animals that would detach and float in the water column, presumably not by accident, so yours may be trying to find a place where the grass is greener. Of course, there's no guarantee that you have its food source in your tank, in which case it would eventually starve. Many ovulids are very specific in their dietary choices. I've never kept anything similar to your animal in my tanks, but I've had other gastropods show up that I KNEW wouldn't find anything appropriate to eat in my tank, and they managed to live two or three months without eating, and some longer than that. Hopefully that's not the case with yours, and it will find something non-ornamental to feed on that will keep both of you happy.

I don't know of any good sources of info describing the specific feeding habits and methods of ovulids. Greenbean has access to more of the scientific literature than I do at the moment, so maybe he'll be able to come up with some info for you.

Cheers,


Don