Zoa eating snail? And lots of eggs.

[MrsReefK]

My Zoas have been only partially opening for about two weeks now. The first week I didn't fret, all other corals are doing great and figured they were alright without looking further. (That's the last time I assume without looking further)

The day before last I found a pile of eggs on one of the zoa colonies, in the middle was a snail. I pulled out the snail and got rid of the eggs as best I could. I dipped in coral rx, and watched closely. Below is the snail shell in the middle of the eggs.



Today I did a coral rx dip on all of the other corals, I found eggs (same consistency) on two other colonies. And then found this pile of eggs in a different spot on the original colony.



Once I started pulling out the eggs, another snail!! If you follow the "trail" of eggs back to the colony, you see a hole, this is where the snail was. It was borrowed under the zoa "mat".



This pic is to just show the eggs in case it helps, the "string" between eggs is very very strong, much like a rubber band, bounces back if broken. The eggs slide along it like beads on a necklace, this was really stretched out when pulling it out, when I sat it down, the eggs compacted back to one little bunch. Crazy.

Any insight? Are these snails eating my Zoas or possibly just agitating? Any ID suggestions?

 

[MrsReefK]

Anyone?

 

[Reef Bass]

The usual "snail eating zoanthids" culprit are sundial snails. That is not one of those.

With your zoanthids only being closed, versus "disappeared", perhaps this snail is irritating but not consuming them.

Either way, removing it seems appropriate if it's causing negative consequences.

 

[MrsReefK]

The usual "snail eating zoanthids" culprit are sundial snails. That is not one of those.

With your zoanthids only being closed, versus "disappeared", perhaps this snail is irritating but not consuming them.

Either way, removing it seems appropriate if it's causing negative consequences.

Thank you, appreciate your feedback. I'll continue to check on them daily to see what snails I didn't catch and keep pulling these eggs out. Where the snail was, zoa polyps were severed at the bottom, assuming this is only because the snail borrowed, separating them from the rock.