Evil nassarius snail?

[BrackishAqua]

I bought these only because the lfs said they were good detritus eaters and sand sifters. Well after a day of cruising in and out of the sand leaving slime trails everywhere they decided to start hunting down my hermit crabs and eating them. I watched it happen. The crab was trying to get away but was to slow, so they got in a tussle and the crab ended up getting on the snails back. the snail was going crazy and finally knocked the crab off its back and instantly engulfed the whole crab in its foot. I quickly pulled the snail out and pried the crab from its foot. even after the 10 seconds it was in the snail it was killed. Poison maybe? idk I'm lost here. After that i realized most of my hermits were dead, so i removed all the snails.
i researched all night and still can't get a definite Id for these snails. helpppppp

 

[Sniperhank]

You do have a correct ID on the snail, but they are very far from predatory. If it was going after hermits, they were sick and on the way out. These guys lives are cleaning up the dead, dying, and sick. They do not have any poisons or anything as such. They normally stay under the sandbed digging around and will come out when they sense something to eat. Mine only come out when I feed the tank.

 

[dylan p]

Had to be sick for the snail to catch it my blue leg hermits cruise around way faster then any of my snails


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[melosu58]

They are the best IME as keeping the tank clean. As mentioned before they are not predators by any means. The hermit had to be dead already. You can not go wrong with them in your tank.

 

[Reefing Madness]

They are called Whelk Snails
Whelks by Ronald L. Shimek, Ph.D. - Reefkeeping.com

 

[Sniperhank]

They are called Whelk Snails
Whelks by Ronald L. Shimek, Ph.D. - Reefkeeping.com

That might be a much more accurate ID. I'm not familiar with any whelks with that type of shell, but by far haven't seen very many of them personally. If it was really hunting then it is most likely a whelk.

 

[mr_X]

The snail pictured above will not eat a healthy living creature.

 

[BrackishAqua]

The snail pictured above will not eat a healthy living creature.

I would believe that if i didn't witness it chase down and kill my crab that i had for 5 months. And then find more empty shells which the same thing happened to. i have tiny hermits the size of a pea. Not the bigger ones. I seen the snails try to attack my turbo snail too and the turbo ended up burying himself under the sand attached tight to the glass so they couldn't get him. and I've never seen him even try to go in the sand before so he knew what was happening. I put the snails in a container in the refugium and tried feeding them blood worms. 1 ate some worms the other three had no interest. so they definitely don't seem like scavenging snails to me. Im going to risk the life of my last little hermit and film it to see if they attack the hermit when i put him in the container.

 

[Autumnsky]

This takes the nickname Zombie Snail to a whole other level.

Do you feed them at all? Sometimes there isn't enough food to go around after the top guys get theirs. (I overfeed more than under feed so not at my house, hehe) Those look pretty much like mine from reefcleaners.

Hope you get this figured out. I would put in a Crab Cuisine pellet or if you have special Marine food for snails or shrimp. Or just for the test, a Hikari sinking omnivore or carnivore wafer. And see which he goes for the Hermit or the pellet. Then save the Hermit.

 

[mr_X]

I would believe that if i didn't witness it chase down and kill my crab that i had for 5 months. And then find more empty shells which the same thing happened to. i have tiny hermits the size of a pea. Not the bigger ones. I seen the snails try to attack my turbo snail too and the turbo ended up burying himself under the sand attached tight to the glass so they couldn't get him. and I've never seen him even try to go in the sand before so he knew what was happening. I put the snails in a container in the refugium and tried feeding them blood worms. 1 ate some worms the other three had no interest. so they definitely don't seem like scavenging snails to me. Im going to risk the life of my last little hermit and film it to see if they attack the hermit when i put him in the container.

I've been keeping them for about 20 years and haven't witnessed a single instance of aggression out of them. I don't think I've even read of something like this in that time. It would be a first if so.