Snail ID

[jmowbray]

This tank was started with dead rock and only a normal CUC. This snail just showed it's face this week for the first time. I think it must have been small when I ordered my CUC from RC's and they didn't notice. Now it's significantly larger than most snails in the tank. It seems to prefer the rockwork and doesn't seem to be bothering corals.

 

[pagojoe]

Yeah, it's pretty, but it will eat any other snails or clams that it can catch. It's a muricid, Stramonita haemastoma.

Cheers,



Don

 

[jmowbray]

AGH no!!! Are you positive Don? Dang it. Well I'm not sure how it got in there but I know where it's going.

 

[pagojoe]

Yup. If you had a friend come back from the Gulf Coast recently, maybe they brought you a "secret present" and dropped it in the tank to surprise you!

 

[pagojoe]

Looking at the latest taxonomy as recorded by Eddie Hardy, it appears that someone has finally split the Gulf Coast Stramonita species off from S. haemastoma... It's the same snail it's always been though, and eats other molluscs.

http://www.gastropods.com/8/Shell_3008.shtml
http://www.gastropods.com/4/Shell_1904.shtml

 

[hotelbravo]

I have one of those and before putting it in my sump he ate probably 15-20 snails. Ive watched him pull snails off the glass and eat them.