snail ID?

looks like a nerite snail
has been roaming around my tank
mostly at night but sometimes in the day
pulled him out cause im not sure

thanks

 

Looks like a nerite to me also

 

Yep, I second the nerite, they do move at night mostly, there are two sizes I have, they work well in CUC

 

are nerites a "good" snail? i was cleanin out my sponge filter media in my sump and found a half dozens babies. i threw them in my tank and hope theyre good. also had an 8 inch fireworm under one of the filters. actually scared me. lol.

 

Nerites are very good.

There is a similar snail that comes out at night that remains small, called a colonista snail. These are listed on melev's site, and are a free part of your CUC. I have a billion of those.

Now a pyramellid snail is a bad thing, and many wrasses will take care of them.

 

Hi Jake,

Yes, it's a nerite, and one of three or four species whose taxonomy is debatable at the moment. The most likely correct name, as far as I can tell, is Nerita squamulata. Nerita chamaeleon and Nerita textilis are very similar, and so is Nerita signata, except N. signata has the "blood" spot on the columella. If yours lacks the red dot on the columella near the aperture, it's probably Nerita squamulata. The best pics I can find of that species are misidentified. The top shell in this link is N. squamulata, not N. incerta:

Nerita (Nerita) incerta

Likewise, the top shell in THIS link is N. squamulata, not N. undata:

Nerita (Cymostyla) undata

They normally live in the sand around rocks in the tidal zone, and pop out of the sand onto the rocks as the tide rises. They are safe algae eaters, but lacking tides in your aquarium, they may not cruise the rocks and glass and eat algae like you'd want them to. They won't hurt anything, in any case.

Cheers,



Don