Funky Snail? Can anyone id?

[Guest Keyoke]

About oh, a month or so ago I discovered a pair of .. well they look like snails of some sort.

 

shell less, or rather, there's a soft shell on the things, they are grey in color, with the foot being a creamy white color (on the bottom). You can see the proboscis (or whatever snail mouths are called) that apperas to be on a short trunk. The creature has a LONG foot, probably twice again the length of the soft shell. Eye stalks as well.. it reminds me of an elephant for some reason.

 

These things can move rather quickly too.

 

Overall size is about 1/2 inch or so.

 

I figured they were benign, but I've noticed that I've got some babies of these things in my fuge now. There are two (that I saw), 1 is about 1/8" an inch, the other is slightly larger, maybe 1/4 of an inch.

 

So before this erupts into some sort of funky-elephantine-soft-shelled-snail pandemic, i'd like to verify that they are indeed benign..

[fishface]

I couldn't tell you for certain without a picture, but they probably are "SeaBunnies" mentioned on the IPSF site. I bought mine at the Reef tank.

They are an Ophistobranch, so a biologist might argue the finer differences between them and snails that carry a full shell.

 

They procreate prolifically. I have a population that peaks and drops back. They can appear to be everywhere sometimes. I have them in an LPS tank with a pair of clowns that I hope will breed, so I really am not concerned that they are all over. I do plan to add them to my main tank though. Once I setup a 'fuge they will go into it.

 

Basically if you are interested in letting them spawn to add to the floating food particles in the water column, then you will be fine. Your corals and other filter feeders (depending upon the size particles they are designed to catch) will benefit by the fresh food. That's their main contribution to your tank. And there's a lot to be said for free food.

 

And I couldn't tell you how to remove them at this point if you wanted to, but the Reef Tank might have advice.

 

FF

[Guest Keyoke]

hum. Well I've noticed that these things ... smoke.

 

One of 'em is .. I dunno if it's humping or what, but it's moving rythmically against the lip of some orange Acro that's growing over the edge of some rock. Everytime it pumps it's shell, it looks to be blowing smoke.

 

It's like a dog... I swear my tank inhabitants are crazy.

[fishface]

Check www.iprf.com

He's a humorous writer when describing them.

I do like to watch my tank, but he does say that they have an erectile penis. I can't say that I'm capable of sitting in front of my tank for THAT long in order to determine whether that's true.

Makes me wonder about some people though....

 

 

hum. Well I've noticed that these things ... smoke.

 

One of 'em is .. I dunno if it's humping or what, but it's moving rythmically against the lip of some orange Acro that's growing over the edge of some rock. Everytime it pumps it's shell, it looks to be blowing smoke.

 

It's like a dog... I swear my tank inhabitants are crazy.

33900[/snapback]

[steveoutlaw]

It really sounds like Gary, Spongebob's pet snail.

[Guest Keyoke]

izzit just me, or are all the pics on www.ipsf.com broke?

[xeon]

Sounds kind of like a Stomatella, but the soft shell and smoke kind of eliminate them. I agree, sounds like a Sea Hare. Here's a link to my favorite "slug type of thingy" id site.

 

http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet.cfm?base=aplysioidea

[Sugar Magnolia]

If it's smoking, then it's spawning, which would explain the babies. I think it's stomatellas. They typically look shell-less, but there is a shell there.

 

Scroll down through this artcile for stomatella info. http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rs/index.htm