Murderous snail

[donnievaz]

I caught this guy eating a nassarius snail. I'm pretty sure the nassarius was killed by him. I watched this guy grow from about 1/4" to his current size never having a clue he could be a problem. After some googling I think it's a whelk but I figured i'd get some other opinions.

 

 

 

 

[smallreef]

Nope...its a snail that eats dead stuff and detritus...your other snail was probably already dead or dying...

[smallreef]

Ps i have 6to of these in my 50gback tank...great cleaan up crew if you are an over feeder like i am...

[Origami]

Actually, it could be a whelk.

http://tbsaltwater.com/thepackage/organisms.html

 

 

Back when I started, I got rock from TBS and had to pick out the whelks at the start. They look similar to nassarius, but they're not.

[jimlin]

does your snail bury itself in the sand?

[jaddc]

The dark spotted trunk makes me suspect that it is a dreaded whelk.

[davelin315]

It's a whelk. They will breed rapidly in captivity and decimate populations of quite a few things. Kill it.

[jimlin]

so it is the color of the trunk that is the determining factor?

[jaddc]

There are other differences. But from the pic I focused on the trunk.

 

http://www.melevsreef.com/id/whats_a_whelk.html

[Origami]

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-11/rs/index.php

[Jan]

Ugh,I had 10 beautiful tunga nassarius snails and wondered why they disappeared and these snails survived. Do they also eat the polyps on SPS?

 

Edited August 11, 2012 by Jan

[icecool2]

Definitely a whelk.

[Ryan S]

wow. i thought it was a nassarius from the photo. didn't even know about whelks. thanks for sharing this!!!

[davelin315]

One of the telltale signs of the type of whelk I've noticed we have a lot of in the club, the unfortunate side effect of trading so much stuff around, is the "hairy" shell. Look for little hairs that come out of the shell versus being smooth. These whelks reproduce pretty easily in our aquariums and will often be all over the rock. I find lots of them stuck to pump intakes and in impellers.

[smallreef]

::amends earlier post::

WOW they look similar.... the whelks I have seem were SOOO much larger than the snails ive had.. hhrrmm makes me wanna go check mine out to make sure they are okay, lol

 

Sentence DEATH!!!

[Sharkey18]

Interesting. So nassarius snails are a type of whelk that is modified to only eat carrion. Explains why they look so similar!

[donnievaz]

He's met his maker

[donnievaz]

It's a whelk. They will breed rapidly in captivity and decimate populations of quite a few things. Kill it.

 

I'm hoping that since this is the only one I've ever seen in my tank that reproduction isn't a problem.

[jaddc]

Those guys hide very well. Keep your eyes peeled.

[Jan]

I went hunting this morning and look what I caught.....

 

 

I got curious about this predetors and found pics of the eggs. Here they are. I've found these exact eggs in my powerhead and and HOB filters but never knew what they were.

 

Edited August 12, 2012 by Jan

[jaddc]

Wow Jan! Do you feed the starfish to the sexy shrimp?

[Jan]

Sexy shrimp don't eat starfish. Do you mean harlequin shrimp? The asterinas went into the woods in my back yard along with the whelks. Bird and bug food.

 

Wow Jan! Do you feed the starfish to the sexy shrimp?

[jaddc]

Ah - I thought that sexy shrimp also ate starfish.

[davelin315]

If you've got that many, you've got an infestation. You'll see them at night crawling around and they are very good at hiding during the daytime. Each egg case, from what I understand, also houses hundreds of eggs. FYI, one of the shells pictured may not be the "bad" whelk based on the shell. They usually have some sort of lip on the shell, at least the ones we commonly see, and one shell on the middle right facing up didn't seem to have it. You can see some of the other shells have that "hairy" appearance as well.

[SunWyrm]

Are the eggs fuzzy as well?

 

I found a couple that I gave to my chiragra mantis. He wouldn't touch them but they ate more than a few of his snacks.

Edited August 12, 2012 by YiatzOfEden