FAQs about Marine Snail Identification
3
Related Articles: Gastropods, Sea Slugs, Mollusks, Abalone,
Related FAQs: Snail
ID 1, Snail ID 2, Snail ID 4, Snail ID 5, Snail
ID 6, Snail ID 7, Snail ID 8, Snail ID
9, Snail ID 10, Snail ID 11, Snail ID
12, Snail ID 13, Snail ID 14, Snail
ID 15, Snail ID 16, Snail ID 17, Snail ID
18, Snail ID 19, Snail ID 20, Snail
ID 21, Snail ID 22, Snail ID 24, Snail
ID 25, Snail ID 26, &
Marine Snails 1, Marine Snails 2, Marine Snails 3, Invertebrate ID, Snail Behavior, Snail Selection, Snail Compatibility, Snail Systems, Snail Feeding, Snail Disease, Snail Reproduction, Mollusks, Sea
Slugs, Abalone,
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Snail ID Hey Bob/Pete Its
a little tough to ID with that bugger covered in coralline
<G> The spike sure is distinguishing if
they all have it (not an anomaly with this one I assume?)
I don't see how this is/could be a conch
species... really does not look the part to me.
IMO... it looks Nassariidae. Its behavior and
shape (and what little pattern there is to the shell still
resembles the bands of mud snails variously).
Bob... have you sent this image to Marty B at
Tideline? Do you think he might recognize it? Anthony |
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"Red Footed Conchs", prev. snail ID Hi Bob,
This is John Phillips at the Abbey. How goes the struggle? <Fine
John, great to hear from you. I trust you're still playing the
harp, keeping things going there with Marty.B> Sorry for not
getting in touch, but I'm always behind in just about every
facet of my life & certainly not the efficient correspondent
that Marty is; however, I am being somewhat punctual and efficient
regarding this e-mail because it involves taxonomy about a
particular shell that I am familiar with. The common name of your
shell is "The Thorn Latirus", which stems from the very
gaudy and menacing spine/thorn that grows out from the bottom of
its outer lip. It is a member of the Molluscan Family
Fasciolariidae and goes by the 'handle' Opeatostoma
pseudodon and was first noticed and officially/scientifically
described by a chap named Burrow in 1815. It hails from a broad
range of miles stretching from Peru in South America north as far
as northern Baja Calif., W. Mexico. Lives in shallow water and
prefers haunting stony corals, rocks, and boulders. Not a good
thing to accidentally kick with the end of your big toe kissing the
menacing tip of its thorn!! Not poisonous however!! Hope this
trivia proves useful & always a pleasure to provide same. Best
to you and your lovely wifelet & we shall get together again
soon for some chuckles. Cheers from TIDELINE JOHNNY
<Outstanding. Thank you John. Will archive your response with
the pix. Best to you. Bob Fenner> |
Mysterious slugs in my salt water tank 6/15/04 Hi there,
<cheers, dear> I had a couple of questions. I've
had my Nano Cube 12 gallon tank for about half a year and everything
inside has been doing very well. I do weekly water changes and check
for pH and salinity on a regular basis. <excellent to
hear... I run a very successful Nano reef of my own with weekly water
changes :) > However, this past week and half I noticed a mysterious
yellow slug-like thing in my tank. I didn't
pay too much mind to it, but the past few days my daisy coral
hasn't been penning up at all. I'm new to this
saltwater tank thing, so I'm not sure if it is dead. This morning I
noticed that there was not only one, but three, slug-like things in the
tank. They are all almost an inch long - could this be the
reason my daisy coral is having problems? <yes... almost
certainly. Nudibranchs like this are not uncommon at all... and can be
devastating (please do use a quarantine tank for all new future
livestock to screen for such pests and predators)> Where are these
slugs coming from? <lack of QT... entry with live rock,
new coral, snails added, live sand.... anything wet you've added
recently> Any help you could give me would be wonderful! Melissa
<remove them manually, and rest assured that they are likely coral
specific and will leave most other corals in your tank alone. There is
a common dirty yellow species frequently imported and so-called
"Tritoniopsis" or "Tritonia". We have a couple of
references to them here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/seaslugfaqs.htm and
here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/nudifaqs.htm use the
"Find" word option from the toolbar on your browser (under
edit likely) to find the location of these words specifically on the
page. Best regards! Anthony>
Cowry ID 5/2/04 Good evening/morning! (it's 4am)
<cheers> Hope all's well. I have a quick question, do you
know of any website/book that has pictures of living cowry snails. I
looked online, but all I could find were pics of cowry shells
(thoroughly useless!). I have a little one I would like to id.
Any help is appreciated, Morgan Mok <I suspect it will not be hard
to ID... but it would help if you know what ocean it came from to
narrow the search. I'm not aware of any "Live Cowries of the
World" book ;) For Atlantic species... Humann's dive book
series is excellent. From the Pacific, there are several great
references. Most/all of these field guides can be purchased from the
excellent natural history bookseller seachallengers.com kind regards,
Anthony>
Bad decisions... wrong species, right admiration 5/27/04
Well, I'm not sure what sea this cowry comes from. I got it from a
friend's tank because I'm an invert lover and I think cowries
are really cool. ;] <fascinating yes. Do check out our
coverage of gastropods in "Reef Invertebrates" by Calfo and
Fenner too> I can give you a basic description and see if you can
make anything of it. <nearly impossible from a text description. A
photo at least would be helpful> It's about an inch long, the
shell is creamy white w/out any visible markings. The mantle is white
w/ dark purple circular spots all over it. The foot is
white/translucent w/ the outer perimeter being purple/dark magenta
colored. I'm not too sure what it eats, maybe algae maybe snails.
Who knows? ;] It is nocturnal for sure. <It never ceases to amaze
and disappoint me that people bring pets into their home without
knowing what they eat/need to survive> Thanks for any info you can
give. Morgan Mok ps: Do you know where a person can get electric
scallops? ;] <they are near impossible to keep for anything
that approaches a natural lifespan in captivity... unless you have
figured out a way to magically culture bacteria, nanoplankton and other
necessary plankters> Also, do spiny scallops/oysters (can't
remember the name) need temperate waters in order to survive? Thanks!
<Ughhh... if you are referring to Thorny Oysters... they are near
impossible just the same. These azooxanthellate bivalves are some of
the most difficult reef invertebrates to keep alive in aquaria. They
slowly starve over a period of weeks to months categorically (very few
exceptions). Please be a responsible aquarist and avoid these
specimens. Read more about why on our free content website,
wetwebmedia.com, or our last book if its handy. Anthony>
Woops! >Mr. Fenner, >>Marina today, Bob is in Egypt
ogling mermaids. >My apologies for the repeated interruptions, I
have a snail that I cannot find on WWM. Please see the attached (albeit
terrible) photo. >>No photo is attached, mate. Try again, and
please make it about 300 pixels to a side, and no larger than 200-300kb
if possible. >It is relatively flat with only a mild volcano
appearance. It grows rather rapidly and has a hole at the top, if that
will help any. Thank You very much for your time. Daniel
>>I'll have to let you give this one another go, my friend.
Marina
ID Snail/Slug ?? (with pictures) 4/6/04 Hello
crew, These two guys came with two soft corals I recently picked
up. I noticed them just before putting the pieces in my tank so I
took them off and have been trying to figure out if they are
friend or foe. My tank has all soft corals (polyps, pulsing
xenia, zoos etc) <Good to be cautious! Unknown hitch
hikers are a good reason to quarantine.> One has a green
"hump"/shell on his back and the other has a hump but
it is not as green. Another one was able to get in my tank and I
have yet to find him/her. <Your pic is a bit fuzzy, but
the critter is almost certainly Stomatella Varia (AKA "cap
snail"). If you do a Google search, you should be able to
find a very good pic to compare to.> Good or Bad?
<One of the very best critters to have in your tank, IMO. They
are nighttime algae grazers, harmless to all other animals in in
many tank they are prolific spawners that provide a lot of coral
food.> Thanks again for all your help.
<It's always a pleasure!>
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Can you please help me identify this snail?? today I got some
corals for my reef tank and on one of them is a snail about 1inch or so
in shell length. he has a white shell that looks like a conch
shape. it has a bright red body and yellow spots. I looked
online and its not a red foot. the only other snail I have seen like
this was on the blue planet series on the discovery channel and it was
called a saddle conch I think but it eat snails and inverts. can
you tell me what this snail is? I just hope its not a saddle conch
<I'm not sure how I could possibly ID this for you my friend
without a description or picture (preferred). If it looks like a conch
though, then it is not likely to be an algae grazer and may very well
be predatory. Anthony>
Nassarius? or Conus? Predatory 3/22/04
Greetings Crew, <cheers> A little help with an ID. I was sold
this (picture attached) as a Nassarius snail, but it is about
11/2" long and I watched it consume a 1" Astraea snail,
shell and all and take it underground, granted I think the Astraea
was dead anyways, <hmmm... not necessarily. Many gastropods are
predators on others> but I am also missing a 3" Blue
Mandarinfish, I haven't seen him in three days? I
have or had two of these supposed Nassarius snails (I've only
seen one for about a week), a dozen small Hermit crabs, a sally
lightfoot crab, and a sand shifting snail. <it is clearly not a
Nassarius... and the radula at the front end indicates that it is a
meat eater... predator of some sort> Also these guys
go under the sand bed pretty quick with only a small tube sticking
out of the sand bed, and pretty much stay there, unless they are
"hunting", one did come out one other time, crawled up to
the top of my tank glass leaving some stringy slime and then back
down and underground again. Any Ideas? Thanks
for your help and your site. Sincerely, John <this is clearly
not a reef-safe snail to me... although I'm not sure what
species it is (not too hard to determine with better pics or your
time browsing through shell-collectors web-sites for IDs.
Nonetheless... some killings could have been avoided if you would
have/will put this and all new creatures into a proper QT/isolation
tank first before adding them to a display - very dangerous. Some
such snails will selectively kill all of the Astraeas in mere
days/weeks. Please do review/read our articles on the importance of
QT and correct ID before buying my friend. This snail looks nothing
like a Nassarius and gives/gave no reason to be suspected as
such/safe. Best of luck! Anthony> |
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Re: Conus on 3/22/04 WWM FAQs Anthony: I
saw the picture of a snail someone had mistakenly thought to be a
Nassarius in today's FAQs. You suspected it's a Conus sp.
It sure looks like one to me, too. <actually, the person writing
the query thought it was a Conus sp. if not Nassarius... I do not
believe it is either, but did not have a good reference handy to
peg the shell. I suggested the chap look it up on a
shell-collecting web-site (those guys are so good! at obscure shell
IDs). Nonetheless, I did say/recognize the shell as a predatory
species with its modified radula (proboscis). Likely just a
predator on other gastropods... small fishes at best> If so, is
it not potentially deadly to humans? <there is a
"textile" species of Conus that is fatal to humans. I am
not aware of a single recorded sighting/killing of an aquarist by
this snail though. Afflicts divers and coastal human activities>
I sure wouldn't want one in my tank and would strongly
recommend extremely careful removal to avoid any contact that could
result in a lethal sting. The question would then be what to do
with it. <contacting a public aquarium for use as live... or
again, one of the shell collectors to put it to some kind of use
would get my vote, rather than simply destroying it> Am I
mistaken about the danger of this specimen? Steve <quite correct
my friend... those textiles are scary lethal they say. May account
for some drownings by swimmers. Anthony> |
Being and Educated Consumer 3/23/04 Hello
Anthony, and or crew, <howdy!> Thank you for your response to
my last question. <always welcome my friend> The
Astraea that was consumed was lying on the sand bed for three days,
I thought I would leave it for the hermits, I am new at this, but
have learned that the Astraea is a good algae eater, but it is also
quite clumsy, <hmmm... no harm in being new. Welcome to this
wonderful hobby! As to the Astraea being clumsy, though... not
really. Its more a matter of being put in an unnatural
aquarium/system - point blank: they do not occur on/near soft sandy
substrates in the wild (other gastropods do and are better suited
of course). As such, when they fall to the sand, they are poorly
adapted to right themselves or return to familiar hard substrates.
They are excellent algae eaters, but for your sandy tank, it would
be better to use Turban/Turbo species form the Pacific... or better
still...tank raised (and easy to reproduce at home) Trochus or
Strombus species like from IPSF.com... or glean some free
Stomatellid or Cerithium snails from a member of a local aquarium
society> also I did try to research the Nassarius snail, and
some pics I seen had the same little scope thingy sticking out of
the sand, <yes... they do have a modified radula/proboscis which
indicates (in any snail) that they are not algae eaters. In the
case of Nassarius... they are harmless detritivores (still no algae
though)... but most such snails with that "schnoz", are
predators> I did notice that the shell was different, but I
didn't think that the shell told all, <the shell does tell
all, my friend> because I heard of a giant Nassarius, <just a
silly trade/marketing name <G>> but have been unable to
find photos... One thing I don't understand is
how a QT could of helped, <it would have illuminated for you an
animal that wasn't eating algae or dead meaty foods and
indicated to you that it was a predator before it started killing
things in your display. QT is to be used for so much more than
disease control/screening> I have one set-up and ready to go,
but what would the snail have shown during the QT process that
would have helped? <I'm grateful to hear that
you have a QT ready my friend. Please do remember one rule if none
other... everything "wet" goes through QT for 4 weeks
without exception (plants, algae, sand, rock, fishes, snails...
everything!) and you will have peace of mind and a much more
successful tank/enjoyment of the hobby... not to mention fewer
deaths/illness in the long run> The ID was my problem, I was
told that Nassarius snails are good, I went to the LFS to buy some
Nassarius Snails, I would never of thought they would sell me
something as something else, <it is natural to feel/believe this
indeed... but caveat emptor. Being an educated consumer is the
best/only way to buy live animals. Know what it is, what it
eats/needs and how big it is before buying any live creatures>
that lesson learned, but on the other hand I did search for Snail
ID's on this site, and got some question and answers, but no
pictures of Giant Nassarius snails, or any snails that resembled my
snails, <understood... yet for all of our best efforts and the
enormous size of the site, we are not all-knowing <G>>
believe me I have been spending hours reading articles on your
site, which is good, because I'm learning a lot, but it is hard
to remember everything I read, because there is so much, I want to
be a responsible reef keeper, and I am trying to do what's
right for the life in my tank, all I want is a good clean-up crew,
and everything I have tried has failed, the Turbos I bought landed
on the bottom of the sand bed as did the Astraeas , and that was
with drip acclimation, <'twas the source/animals... and not
the species that failed you here. No worries... do try the species
again if you like... or better still, the Strombus or Trochus
species [note: avoid most Strombus snails like conch that get too
large (over 3")... and stick with the small species like those
at IPSF.com]> the Nassarius snails well you know, and now I have
a dozen hermit crabs, which I was told is reef safe, and now have
read that they could become a problem, and one sand shifting star,
that I have learned eats the live sands good stuff, <yes... and
that starfish needs 100 gallon tanks minimum to have a chance at
surviving anything close to a full lifespan. Yours may starve... do
consider removing> I have no problem with chemistry, I have a 75
gallon reef ready tank, with about 99 lbs of LR, and a 5" DSB
with a sump, and a SeaClone skimmer that I also know is not good
(now). So I have a 75 gallon reef ready tank with 99
lbs. of LF, a 5" DSB of aragonite LS, a protein skimmer that
is worthless, a sump, good chemistry, good flow, a dozen hermit
crabs, and a sand shifting star, What should I do now?
<no biggie... it will be fine. You can simply adjust or increase
water flow and improve skimming alone and that will take care of
most any nuisance growth you will encounter by optimizing nutrient
export> I don't mean to sound so sour, but $3000.00 into a
hobby trusting some people that should know what they are selling
(LFS), and some mistakes on my part when I want to do good, I am
just plain hurt and frustrated, Please help me right this
ship! Please!! <consider it this way, mate: you would
not buy a $3K car or other big expense just on the first
salesperson's word and good name, right? You ID the car, make,
history... check under the hood, ask friends for opinions (people
that are not trying to sell you stuff ;)), etc. Just be an educated
consumer across the board. Things failed here because you bought
the snail without a correct ID, and you did not QT it ta' boot.
We have all made this mistake and most of us learn from it. You
will too. But that isn't the LFS fault. To some (large) extent,
the burden is ours re: information gathering to make informed
decisions.> I should also note that my tank has been up and
running since 2/10/04. <let me strongly encourage you to find a
local or regional aquarium society to visit and perhaps join my
friend. Fish clubs are some of the very best places to get free,
accurate and unbiased information from people with shared interests
as you and no desire to sell you anything/no bias. In some cases,
the info is far more reliable than what you can find on the
Internet (random unqualified postings). Do a keyword search of your
home town/region for clubs and also check the big message boards
like ReefCentral.com which have long lists of clubs/forums. Best of
luck! Anthony> |
Re: Nassarius? or Conus? On a good path 3/23/04 Anthony
and crew, <howdy!> Thank you so much, you are completely
right, and you gave me a ton of information that is going to
help, I have been trying to be an educated Consumer, my problem
is I was being educated by the wrong people, <truly
understood, my friend... most of us have had this experience.>
but that has changed, not only have I found you, but I have also
bought your book, and the Conscientious Marine Aquarist, along
with a few more, and I'm joining a local club, and have
joined a couple sites... <excellent... all
wonderful to hear> So I'll be taking a step back and
reading for a bit. <one of my fave sayings -
"Its greater later". Yes... agreed> I took the two
snails to a LFS I found that has a consultant from Shedd
Aquarium, I might have found a good LFS, anyway, they think that
they were a type of olive snail and took them for me, and gave me
some true Nassarius snails and two Turbo snails, what a
difference in what I had and what a Nassarius is..
wow! <heehee.. yes. Indeed> And I also got rid
of the Star.... Thanks for your
help! <all the best to you and
your enjoyment/success with the hobby and beyond. Anthony>
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Snail ID...sans pic 3/19/04 I have looked through most if not
all of the snail pics and links offered on this sight, and still
can't ID this little one. I have no way of getting a pic. to you,
but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask any way. It is about 1/8 to
maybe a 1/4" in length. The shell and body shape are identical to
Oliva sayana Ravenel (eyes mouth and all). But, the color of the body
is completely white, and the color pattern is like the pattern found on
Marginella plumiosum or Glowing Marginella. However, the color on the
pattern is different. The background color is white but instead of the
striping being a light yellow it is a tan color with the last band at
the rear being a dark brown. It came out at night when I first saw it
and caught it. Any ideas? <no way of saying for certain without a
pic at least/minimum, let me suggest that you browse the books and
internet sites for shell-collectors. A wealth of information there>
Also that same night I noticed my Cerith snail egg squiggles were gone
and noticed that amongst the pods on the glass were many tiny white
round spots attached to the glass. The outside of these spots were
covered with several clear thread like projections, spaced along these
threads are 3-4 small clear circular capsules. These threads are
irregular in placement and length and are easily moved about by the
current. So far I can't tell if these little critters can move,
they seem to still be in the same place I found them last night. Some
of them are larger than others and some have more threads on them. Are
these pods as well or other beneficial critters? Could they possibly be
snail larvae? <again... very sorry, but a gross description simply
doe snot help us here my friend. We'd just be guessing randomly>
The Cerith snail eggs were only laid maybe 3-4 days ago. I have Cerith
snails, 1 fighting conch, several smaller snails I have Identified but
have forgotten the name of. A colony of Zoos, a Linckia, two yellow sea
cucumbers (they are going to a new home) DSB, LR hitchhiker critters
including a small red hermit crab I'm trying to catch, and a purple
feather duster. I also have many little spiral like white hard tubes on
the glass I forgot their name as well. <these are Spirorbids...
described with so many other worms in our new book, Reef Invertebrates
(Calfo/Fenner)> They have little feather duster like fans that
filter the water, tube worms come to mind. Any way any help is
appreciated. Shauna <best of luck! Anthony> Mystery snail and
starfish question Hello all! <Steve Allen> I have
a mystery snail in my reef. What kind is
it? It's not in any of my invert books. I
removed it tonight, and moved it to a tank without any complicated
rockwork, so I could find it again if I needed to. <Does it bury
itself in the sand? Looks like some sort of Nassarius (or similar
subsurface) snail to me. Generally harmless cleaner of sandbeds. Search
WWM & other web sources for pix & info.> Also,
do you know if Linckias are known sponge eaters? It seems
that's all my orange Linckia likes to eat. <Well then yours is,
right? The are generally opportunistic scavengers. No real surprise if
it eats sponges.> Everyone I know who has tried one has
seen it die fairly quickly. <Yes, which is why I think they should
not be sold. Lost a few myself before switching to Fromias> So far,
after about a month, mine's still looking chipper. Could
it be the sponge diet? <Perhaps. A month is a good start. Kept your
water clean & stable and maybe you will succeed where most fail. My
fingers are crossed for you.> Thank you! Vicki Madison, WI <A
great town. I travel there twice per year on business. Next trip in 3
weeks.>
Limpets to the left of me, jokers to my right - 2/16/04 Hi
guys, <Hey Larry> I need help identifying a living creature I
found in my reef tank. <Hard to do without a pic> I just found an
animal that is about 1-1.25 inches in diameter, that is black in color
and flat as paper. <OK> It has a hard 1/2" long by about
1/8" wide white stripe down the center of it, that feels like
shell or bone. <Shell.> The rest of the animal is
slimy and soft and ovoid in shape. <It is a limpet. Scutus unguis or
more commonly called the "shield limpet"> I think it has 2
small antennae at its head and it is very slow moving along my live
rock. It sort of looks and feels like a Chinese black mushroom if you
are familiar with them. Please help, I want to
know if it is reef safe. <The common belief is that they are not
reef safe. I however have raised on from a juvenile with no effect on
any coral or other living animal except for the algae he seems to eat
off the acrylic and live rock. I will leave it up to you research a bit
more and see if you feel like you want to risk keeping it. I don't
see a problem with it, in my experience ~Paul> Thanks, Frozen in
Minnesota, Larry.
Unidentified snail - 2/15/04 Hi,
This is Jonathan
I have a fairly important question. <They all are, my friend>
About 12:00 last night I was flashing around in the tank and I noticed
a snail moving on my live rock and it was moving pretty fast for a
snail so I examined it and it's a snail that I have never seen
before. <So this is a snail you did not purposefully place in your
tank? Very cool> I examined it and it looks like a snail except it
has a tube that comes out in front of itself to feel around and inside
is it's mouth. <That is a proboscis. It is used for feeding.>
I put it in a cup with a piece of shrimp and it started
eating it <Sounds like it could be a Nassarius snail. A harmless
scavenger of meaty items. I would definitely look through the internet
and see if you can't identify it.> Recently I have had several
snails and hermit crabs die I was hoping you could help me out.
<Well, the other hermit and snail deaths are likely unrelated, but
until you positively id the specimen, there is no telling what it is or
what its possible threat to your inhabitants are. Also, I remember
reading some of your inquiries lately and I seem to remember your tank
being a fairly new setup. A newly setup aquarium can and will attribute
to invertebrate death sometimes.> Sorry I can't get
you a picture right now. <either a picture or some identity from
another source would be ideal. Thanks for being part of it all.
~Paul> Thanks Jonathan
Prehistoric worm...errr...??????? 1/30/04
Hello, Thanks for taking the time to look at my message.
I have been to countless research and identification databases and
so far have come up empty. I believe the thing in the attached
pictures came in with some live rock although it may also have
hitchhiked in with any one of several large coral colonies. Any
identification help you could assist me with would be appreciated.
<Such hitchhiking is certainly a common experience, and the
possibility of bringing in destructive critters is a great
motivation for quarantine!> It lives inside a rock and comes out
to feed on sponges and algae. <How do you know this is what it
is feeding on? Have you observed it
feeding? Have you observed it at night to see where and
what it forages? Abalone for example, are known to
wander widely at night only to return to the same daytime resting
place.> I have never seen it completely out of the rock but I
have seen about 6" of it. I would estimate the head to be
approx. the size of a half dollar and the main body to be approx.
?" in diameter with a rounded corner square shape. It has
spines/ horns the size and shape of a rose thorn that run along the
body to its head where they almost de-evolve into what looks like
soft open tissue the shape and size of a spine/horn. Hopefully the
picture will explain it better. <Six
inches!! Wow! If this critters eating habits
were destructive, it would probably be quickly
obvious. It looks like the middle section of it's
back are separated into "plates". If so, and
they are leathery, it is a Chiton. If it is a single,
hard calcareous shell, it is a limpet or other
mollusk. Kudos on finding this unique
critter! Please do continue to observe it
carefully. Such a large critter could do some serious
damage if is or becomes predatory.> Thanks Again, Mickel
<Best Regards, Adam> |
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Neat pic for the reef obsessed Hi all,
<Adam> I moved a message with the subject "Prehistoric
worm...errr...???????" to the images folder. I
thought that the reef/invert junkies may appreciate it and that it
may be a good one to save for future reference. consider
particularly that the sender reports the critter to be in excess of
6"! <Wowzah! FYI I or Marina (or Jas or Anthony) save the
incoming graphics on our active desktops to place... later... to
save space on the WWM mail server> I also wanted to get some
confirmation from the group... Although not a very
typical specimen, I was fairly certain that this critter is a
Chiton, but advised the sender to determine if the
"shell" was composed of multiple leathery plates or a
single hard calcareous shell to rule out limpet. <Does appear to
be a Polyplacophoran to me as well. Bob F> Adam |
Help w/snail ID, if you would. 1/13/04 Evening guys :) <Hi
Leafy!> This snail is about a half inch or so in length. The
coloration is a tan/brown base with 3 lighter yellowish/white stripes
on the shell, with a thin white strip near the mantle. This white
stripe has 3 brown dots in it, in line with the stripes on the upper
part of the shell. I acquired 3 of them in my bag of
Nassarius snails, and although they are indeed not, they have very
similar behavioral traits (burrowing in the sand, emerging when tank
is fed). They also appear to share a similar feeding
structure, so I am assuming they are related to the
Nassarius. Any help in this identification would be greatly
appreciated <Sorry to say that despite that
wonderfully detailed description, a certain ID is not
possible. Snail ID's are made largely on shell
structure, not coloration/patterns. The primary part of the
shell used for ID is the operculum (the opening). Nassarius
have a distinctive groove in this part of the shell where the siphon
passes. If you look for the presence of this groove on the
majority, you can compare to the oddballs. Some snails that
look similar to Nassarius are predatory, so do keep an eye on the
"strangers". Adam>
Mollusk ID - Limpet 1/7/03 Hi Guys
and Gals, <Whassup G-money?> This thing appeared
the other day from my live rock. It's like a white hovercraft
with a blowhole in the center. <its a keyhole limpet
(Mollusk... "snail" so to speak)> I was thinking
some kind of worm maybe, but really don't have a clue.
<false on the former, true on the latter <G>> It
is not very flat. Read through Reef Invertebrates, but nothing
looked similar. <look again my friend... page 202, the pic
labeled Acmaea. Then look to the text for info on Limpets>
It's about 3/4" long. Any guesses? <limpets are
relatively harmless although not entirely reef safe (may eat
coralline algae... other desirable benthic growths... sometimes
coral tissue> Thanks, and thinks for all the terrific help
you guys provide. Jim P. <with kind regards,
Anthony> |
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