Snail With Growth On Its Back... Photo

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jimmysmith

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Apr 17, 2006
Messages
8
I have just brought home some snails from my LFS and I've noticed that one of them has an odd bump/growth on the top of it's shell. Can anyone identify what this may be? Thanks in advance!

snail.jpg
 
The image above is shown from under the snail. You can kind of see that this isn't solidly attached to the outter shell. Here's a shot from above...

snail2.jpg
 
As a snail grows so does the shell, to me it looks as though his shell is going through a growth spurt.
 
Snails' shells usually have something growing on them. My snails have coralline growing on them. One of them even has a "coral skeleton" on its shell
 
It's most likely a hitchiker species of Limpet. There are several varieties of parasite univalves that will adhere to the outer shell of the host it's feeding off of.

Cheers
Steve
 
Fluff said:
Is this growth hard? Soft? Is it mobile or stationary?

It's solid and I haven't noticed it move in the last week. It can't be removed with gentle pressure.

Steve-S, someone else in another forum also mentioned that it's likely a limpet. Can you provide a description on what limpets are or even provide a link?

Thanks for your input everyone.
 
I have a snail with the exact same problem....

I have no idea what it is on the snail, but it has been there for about six months. It hasn't caused any issues other than visual.
 
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