snail ID

[hotelbravo]

Back in January 2014 i was setting up my first saltwater tank a 30 gallon. I went to my home town in pensacola for a few days of leave. I went to the beach with my net because i once caught a very cool fish there that i put in a friends tank and it was their show piece for many years (never seen that fish anywhere online so i figure it was rare) ANYHOW while catching things i cought a snail in the sand and i kept him to put into my tank.. my tank was not yet cycled he was the very first inhabitant and i still in there today. I notice him coming out of the sand every now and then specifically when i feed my anemone some chopped up foods..
in this photo the snail is eating some chopped up scallops that my anemone spit out.. the snail spends most of his time under the sand. any ideas?

 

[Betta132]

It's best not to bring things home from the ocean unless you know what they are, how to care for them, and if they're legal to collect in the first place.
Do you know if it's eaten any snails or such? It looks a bit like a whelk. Does it have a snorkel?

 

[hotelbravo]

Yea i think it does have a snorkel. and with the florida fishing license you can collect a few things including a small number of snails it was not illegal. anyway i havent caught and put anything in the tank since i was ignorant to the possibilities of parasites and deseases.

have not seen him eat any snails and i dont have alot of snails go missing.. i have however had strange deaths in my tank. specifically the fish that hide in rocks and i have seen this snail hiding in the rocks before i question if he had anything to do with it but that kinda sounds bizarre.

 

[pagojoe]

It's a rock shell, Stramonita haemastoma. They eat other snails and clams (and maybe barnacles).

Cheers,



Don

 

[hotelbravo]

Should I remove? Would you remove it if it was in your tank?? Thinking back ive seen it on other snails before. I never really thought he could be eating them

 

[pagojoe]

Depends, if you just want to catch snails to feed it, you can do that.

 

[hotelbravo]

You were exactly right about him eating other snails

So ever since I posted this thread ive set aside a small piece of scallop to feed this snail every day. Well the other day before feeding time I saw this snail on the glass which is uncommon for him. He was approaching another snail (astraea turbo) so I watched carefully since ive found about 5 dead ones in the last week. The snail went to the turbo and literary pulled him off the glass they both fell only the sand and the snail ate the turbo in about an hour. I feel that this guy needs to go.. should I offer him to someone or toss him out and let it die?

 

[LauraBay]

Du you have a sump you could put it in and feed it down there? I feel like it would be wrong to kill it since you collected it and brought it home. If someone else could give it a proper home then giving it away sounds like a good option but please inform them of its habits first.

 

[hotelbravo]

I would never give him away without telling them about my experience I am an overly honest person I wouldn't be able to lie if I wanted to.... And I hope to give him away not kill him. I'm building a sump atm that is a good idea putting him in there

 

[teishokue]

I suppose a few reasons not to bring stuff home. How's the fish look like too? I wanna see thus "rare" fish

 

[hotelbravo]

I suppose a few reasons not to bring stuff home. How's the fish look like too? I wanna see thus "rare" fish

From memory the only way I could describe it would be a 4 inch long fish that had two colorful fins that looked similar to the scooter blenny's bottom red fins. He would sit in the sandbed in the tank and bury himself almost completely with the exception of his head. He was black, white, red, and yellow. The winglike fins were patterned red black and yellow. Its mouth wasnt very large but I cant remember.. I had very little knowledge of anything saltwater and up until a few months ago was oblivious to the fact that taking things from the ocean is a bad idea. I wish I could get a picture of the fish because I want to know what it was and if it actually was something unique or just some random fish no one cares about and doesnt get any attention or w.e

 

[Betta132]

Sea robin by the sound of it. They're predators and can get a bit large, so they aren't typically kept in tanks.

 

[pagojoe]

I'm betting it was a scorpionfish if it wasn't a sea robin. The don't move around much and like to hide.

 

[hotelbravo]

I googled sea robin.. that is spot on! But It never ate anything in the tank I put it in. But they had a predator tank with lionfish, grouper, and eel. Last I heard they sold the tank and all its inhabitants