luckycat
Aquarium Advice Freak
Over the past year I've had several snail and crab deaths (emerald), all unexplained. I recently downgraded from a 90g to 12g nano, transporting the snails that were still alive.
I just added four new astreas, and almost immediately one of my very long-lasting snails - from about 3 yrs ago when I first started my fowlr tank (I think it came with some lr)- came out of nowhere and attached itself to the opening of the new snail. I had to really pull on it to separate them. When I put it back in the tank, it went to another one of the new astreas on the front of the glass.
I've seen snails that do a piggy back ride on other snails, but this was different - in both cases it's goal was seemingly to dig into the other snail.
My camera isn't working - but it looks a lot like a nassarius snail, with a long tube protruding from it's head. However, I don't think it ever burrows in the sand as I think nassarius snails are supposed to do. Also, the shell is a bit more "conus" than most of the nassarius pictures I've seen, maybe more like a cerith - but I have some of those and this is not a cerith. The edge of the snail, where the fleshy part is, is not smooth - it has slight ridges.
I've removed this snail, put him in a cup, until I he either dies or I can safely ID him. I've been searching the web for "bad snails" pictures but haven't found a good match. I'll try to get a picture and post, but for now was hoping to find out if it is possible that I have a "killer snail", and any pictures of bad snails that someone could point me to.
Update - I just found this site: http://melevsreef.com/id/whats_a_whelk.html. I am not positive but it does look like a whelk...the "snout" has a white-yellowish ring on the tip, but I don't see a specific pattern "tattoed" on it like it describes. I'll search the web for more whelk pictures for comparison. Also, this snail DOES have a "protective cover" on it's tail, so I'm thinking moe and more that this is a whelk, and maybe it was actually trying to eat my newly introduced snails.
I just added four new astreas, and almost immediately one of my very long-lasting snails - from about 3 yrs ago when I first started my fowlr tank (I think it came with some lr)- came out of nowhere and attached itself to the opening of the new snail. I had to really pull on it to separate them. When I put it back in the tank, it went to another one of the new astreas on the front of the glass.
I've seen snails that do a piggy back ride on other snails, but this was different - in both cases it's goal was seemingly to dig into the other snail.
My camera isn't working - but it looks a lot like a nassarius snail, with a long tube protruding from it's head. However, I don't think it ever burrows in the sand as I think nassarius snails are supposed to do. Also, the shell is a bit more "conus" than most of the nassarius pictures I've seen, maybe more like a cerith - but I have some of those and this is not a cerith. The edge of the snail, where the fleshy part is, is not smooth - it has slight ridges.
I've removed this snail, put him in a cup, until I he either dies or I can safely ID him. I've been searching the web for "bad snails" pictures but haven't found a good match. I'll try to get a picture and post, but for now was hoping to find out if it is possible that I have a "killer snail", and any pictures of bad snails that someone could point me to.
Update - I just found this site: http://melevsreef.com/id/whats_a_whelk.html. I am not positive but it does look like a whelk...the "snout" has a white-yellowish ring on the tip, but I don't see a specific pattern "tattoed" on it like it describes. I'll search the web for more whelk pictures for comparison. Also, this snail DOES have a "protective cover" on it's tail, so I'm thinking moe and more that this is a whelk, and maybe it was actually trying to eat my newly introduced snails.
