Unknown snail plus worm and urchin question

[Polypnewbie]

I got a tuxedo urchin last Wednesday who never seems (if anyone knows about urchins' sleep patterns, I'd appreciate that info). But I believe one of the urchin's pieces of "armor" actually turned out to be a very tiny unidentified snail. I'll attach the picture (which will no doubt be upside down cause I had to take it sideways). If the snail wasn't armor, then he's been hiding in my tank for six months...and at this point nothing shocks me anymore considering all the things that crawled out of the rock that my former eagle eye zoas came in on. Also, there are a gross number of dead or dying worms that collect at the top of the water line that will be in the picture. If anyone knows what the story is with those, I would love to know. They emerged about 2 or 3 months ago, I can't even remember at this point. But this last month their numbers exploded. I have to take something to just wipe them off the glass. If I see any alive I put them in a little pest tank I have. They sometimes look like worms wriggling around, but sometimes they have many little legs. It is a complete mystery to me if it's two very similar looking creatures sort of beaching themselves at the same time, or if it's the same creature at different points of growth collecting together on the glass.

Anyway, identifying the snail is my most pressing concern. I'm already unpleasantly overrun with vermetid snails. It's nice to at least have one that's mobile. And any info on the worm creatures or the tuxedo urchin sleep pattern would help...like can they sleep while attached to glass?

 

[A1t2o]

Very hard to tell from picture, could we see its shell? That will be the identifier. Most likely it is a good snail, looks similar to an astrea snail or a margarita.

As far as I know, urchins don't sleep. You could google it if you want more detailed and reliable info, but I don't think marine creatures sleep the way we can identify with. I think they just have periods where they are less active, almost like they are hiding.

 

[Polypnewbie]

Thanks, I believe this is the shell, now that the snail seems to have relocated to the power head. (Again the picture will probably be rotated)

 

[Naiad]

Look up marine worm "swarmers" and see if that is what is going on with your worms. I agree we need a pic that shows the snails she'll to id

 

[homer1475]

Looks like a margarita to me, I have millions of them in my tank. So much so that at night when the lights are out, my glass looks alive with little white striped dots. In my tank they breed prolifically.

I stared with 5 and have probably close to 500 now!

 

[Polypnewbie]

Wow, 500 is frightening. My tank is only 20 gallons. I really hope that doesn't happen to me. Can one margarita snail do that?

Also I looked up swarmers and felt like it was possible but I was seeing much larger sized worms. So I don't know.

I haven't cleaned the algae out of my tank in weeks because I knew it is the diet for my new tuxedo urchin. Now that it's in there I don't want to go in there and do it in case it causes stress...it seems like everything I read indicates too much algae causes these population explosions though.

Any other advice would be appreciated.

 

[pagojoe]

The snail is a Collonista. They are tiny algae eaters, and don't get very big.

 

[Coelli]

The snail is a Collonista. They are tiny algae eaters, and don't get very big.

I was going to say the same thing. It's not a margarita, it's a collonista. A healthy tank will have hundreds, though they'll be more apparent after lights out.

 

[Coelli]

Looks like a margarita to me, I have millions of them in my tank. So much so that at night when the lights are out, my glass looks alive with little white striped dots. In my tank they breed prolifically.

I stared with 5 and have probably close to 500 now!

Google Collonista snail. It's much more likely that's what your snails are. They stay small.