Snails with no shells?

[ekrunch]

I recently purchased some live rock from an LFS and apparently got some "bonus" snails with it. They are very small in size and only seem to come out at night. They do not appear to have shells, but their back is hard to the touch... almost like they have a shell, just not a tall one like an astrea. They also look exactly like my Astrea snails from the bottom. (When they're on the glass)

Any idea what kind of snails these could be? Hopefully they're reef safe because I have like 30 of them in my 125g reef! I know they came in on the live rock though because the rock was originally in a new 24g tank with nothing else in it. I first saw them on the glass in that tank. I really didn't pay that much attention to them back then but now i'm starting to wonder.

Thanks,
Ed

 

[Sk8r]

Nice bonus. Those are stomatellas, nice, fast little algae grazers, mostly preferring the shadows. If you see puffs of 'smoke' coming from them, or from the rocks, those will be them making new little stomatellas.

 

[jdieck]

They could be Stomatella if they have a small elliptical shell.

 

[Aussie_hippie_2]

huh. So that's what I've got. Cute in the ugliest sense.

 

[ekrunch]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11368721#post11368721 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jdieck
They could be Stomatella if they have a small elliptical shell.

I'll have to take a look when I get home. They definitely have some sort of hard shell on their backs, but it's not really that visible. And it's difficult to see under moonlight LEDs.

I've been doing some reading, and apparently Skunk cleaners love them... seeing as I have two of those, I may not have any stom. snails by the time I get home. Oops.

 

[ekrunch]

Well, I talked to my girlfriend today and she said that she hasn't seen them at all in the tank over the past few nights. I guess my pair of cleaners got to them. Oops.

It's a shame too, I was really looking forward to having a nice cleaner that would breed in the tank so I wouldn't have to invest in an Astrea army!

 

[Big L.E.E.]

If you can find any living, move them to your 'fuge and let them grow.

My cleaner shrimp have eaten most of my smaller (.5-.75" in length) Stomatellas, but haven't touched the big ones (~1" in length). But YMMV.

L.E.E.

 

[ekrunch]

Thanks for the tip! I'll give that a shot tomorrow night and see if I can get any remaining ones out (and hopefully breeding) in the fuge.

 

[jdieck]

I had thousands in my fuge and frag tank, I introduced some peppermints to get rid of Aiptasia and the stomatellas were all gone in a matter of days together with the Aiptasia.
I am really sorry as they are excellent algae cleaners and can reach were other snails can't

 

[Grins]

Further evidence that my 2 cleaners and 5 peppermints are lazy. I have tons of stomatellas and they don't seem to have put a dent in the population.