Friend or foe?

I've never seen one of these before. Today I came home from work and spotted two of them. I pulled both of them and they are in quarintine in a plastic cup. Are they reef safe? Will they eat my clam I bought yesterday (is this more than coincidence). Tell me they're not evil whelks.




Here's my new clam. These snail like things were nowhere near the clam.

 

if you don't know , then they must go!!!!
copyright sostoudt.


seriously if no one else answers this thread its better to throw them away then take the chance.

 

It's not a whelk. The photo angles make it tricky to say for sure which it is, but it's either a nerite or a trochid, both of which are algae eaters. If you could get a pic like the last one from a little farther down the side (showing the spire) that was in focus like the first two, or a pic of the aperture with the animal withdrawn, I should be able to verify the ID for you. It's a good guy in any case.

Cheers,



Don

 

It looks like a black stomatella snail to me. If anyone else wants to chime in also. If so leave it. They are great.

 

Yeah, if it's a black Stomatella, it's a juvenile, as the shell hasn't become elongated yet. It appears to be a lot more inflated than that, which is why my first guess is Nerita. Looks like Paul has it out of the tank already, so maybe we'll get some close-up pics.


Don

 

These guys are tiny. Really hard to get some good pics.

 

Hmmm. Looks like stomatella in the tank pics, but not as much in the cup pics.
By any chance when you spotted them, had the lights just come on?

 

The lights had been on most of the day when I saw them. They do look different in the closeups from the way they looked in the tank.

I think I'm going to leave them in the cup for now. I'd hate to kill them but I don't want to risk them killing anything either.

 

Hmmm. I believe stomatella are nocturnal, which is why I asked. I have a bunch of what at least I believe is stomatella (lol) and they only come out at night. I would wait and see if pagojoe chimes back in after those second round of pics, he's real good with the snails

 

i don't know it looks like half beetle half snail to me a ungodly creation