First Corals and snails?

[ellisz]

Hi all,

I picked up a mushroom rock and 2 star polyp frags over the weekend. All seem to be ok but I did wonder about the flow on the shrooms. I noticed some of the shrooms extending up a bit on one rock and one the other rock, I saw some little bugs running around on it. I also noticed that one of the shrooms had a little round object on it.

I also noticed the first evening, one of my hitchhiker snails was on top of one of my polyp frags. Do some snails eat corals? The snails came with my liverocks.com order. They vary in size and have a little tentacle that comes out in front.

Hopefully my pics will work.

 

[ellisz]

2 more pics

 

[reefrunner69]

but I did wonder about the flow on the shrooms

they will prefer a low to moderate flow.

As for the snail...can we get a picture? Some snails will prey on other snails and corals etc...it is possible though that the snail was simply checking out the new frag, or eating some algae build up on the frag.

 

[ellisz]

I forgot I had more pics with me

Here is the snail in the top right. If you tell me what is in the lower part of the pic under the rock that would be cool too.

If the snail was eating algae, can it be on top of the coral and still not hurt it?

Second pic has a hithiker crab too.

 

[reefrunner69]

The snail looks like a whelk to me, and I would remove it from the tank, they are predators (at least some whelks are), the hitchiker coral is cladacora sp.

 

[ellisz]

The snail looks like a whelk to me, and I would remove it from the tank, they are predators (at least some whelks are)

That sucks. I have a ton of them in the tank. I know I got about 10 or so from my LR. I thought I was lucky sice I needed snails

the hitchiker coral is cladacora sp.

I was wonder about the thing under the rock in snail1.jpg. It has these tentacle things that come out but it is not in the rock. Appears to be under it. I have a serpent star that sticks it legs out at night but this is different than that.

As for the Cladacora, are these good coral? My "coral" rock that I got has a lot of this stuff.

 

[reefrunner69]

I was wonder about the thing under the rock in snail1.jpg.

Ah, I didn't notice that, had to really look for it, that looks like a spaghetti worm to me, beneficial detrivre.

Cladacora is a common hitchiker coral on aquacultured rock but there is not alot of info on them out on the web. Might wanna email LiveRocks.com, they do list it as a common species and list a text reference to it it, but I don't have that book

 

[ellisz]

Could you tell me how you determine that the snail is a whelk? I have been trying to find information on them but there is not much.

I have seen that nassarius snails have the little tenatacle that sticks out the front but supposedly, whelk snails look like nassarius.

I do know that they spend the majority of the time on the LR and they do show up on the glass. Most are about 1/4" long but I have seen some that approach 1/2".

I am getting ready to go on vacation and don't want to come home to dead corals.

Thanks

 

[reefrunner69]

I've seen my nassarius on the glass occasionally, but mostly they stick to the sand, I've only seen them on the rocks once, the day I put them in the tank. I don't know that it is a whelk, it looks like one, but so do nassarius, but nassarius live in the sand, does this snail live in the sand?

 

[ellisz]

If nassarius only live in the sand than I have whelks

I have a number of them but hardly lever see them on the sand. I hardly see anything on the sand any more. Hermits are on the rock too...

These snails are mainly on my LR.

So much for free snails :x

 

[Zack]

Hey
Your snail pic does not work for me. I will get an exact ID. The whelks as reefrunner said can be preadtors but i have not found them to be in our main tanks. I also have quite a few of them. :? Have you seen them eat the frags?

 

[ellisz]

Not sure about the pic but it worked for me still. If you want me to send you a pic directly, PM me.

As for them eating a coral, I have only had my coral frags since Saturday. I found one on top of my smaller frag but I was not sure what it was doing. It freaked me out so I knocked it off. The frag appeared to be ok though. I have not seen any do it since. I was looking for the snails last night and had trouble finding them, go figure I found 2 of the larger ones and they were on the rock.

This makes me wonder though ... how easy it for Nassarius snails to be confused with Whelks? I went to a LFS to get some nassarius snails over the weekend and the were very small and had black shells. He was getting some of them off the glass. Unfortunately, the guy before me got 30 and there were not enough for me. Is this something that is better of mail ordered?

 

[Zack]

HMM i now see the snail pic. Like i said i have servel never had any trouble in either my softie tank or sps/clam tank. I would just watch before killing the snail, not sure what to say with it being on top of polyps, i have seen snails go everywhere, they rarely avoid anything. The polyps, closed up proably didn't bother the snail. :?

 

[ellisz]

I would not kill it. I have another tank set up with the hithiker crabs in it. Some crabs I caught and some I left.

It is amazing all the stuff that keeps coming out. I found a bristle worm and a serpent star coming out from under the rock just this week.

 

[Zack]

Like i always try to say, theres LOTS of life. Keep us updadated on the snails.

 

[ReefLady]

It appears to be a whelk to me also, but I'm not sure.

Here's an article that may help:

> The Predatory Shelled Snails< ~ Ronald Shimek, Ph.D.

 

[ReefLady]

As for them eating a coral, I have only had my coral frags since Saturday.

FWIW, I believe predatory whelks prey on other motile inverts (other snails, worms, etc.). I don't think they eat corals? I'm not 100% sure, but that's my understanding.

 

[ellisz]

Based on those links, I would say I agree but it does list clams as a food source. I have some turkey wings which are a type of clam I believe on some of my FL rock.

A link from that site shows some whelk shells. The shells shown don't really look like mine though. Mine are a smooth shell and don't have any bumps or horns.

great link, Thanks!

Snails with teeth is sort of freaky. The fish eating and human killing snail is nice 8O

 

[steve-s]

Actually I don't think that is a whelk but it is a predatory snail, mainly other snails. Looks much like something from the Fasciolariidae family (fasciolaria sp.)

Cheers
Steve

 

[toddwess]

Thought this was interesting on Whelks . . .

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-08/reefslides/index.htm