mystery snail?...rode in on a zoa rock...

found this on my zoa rock today, also found an aptasia which I cut off the rock, its the only one i found but I'll be watchfull for more now...anyway found this tiny snail in there, and I want to know if hes safe in my reef tank, hes in a dish of tank water now, very small at the moment, only one I saw...heres three pics...if not safe hes gonna have a short life since I dont have a fuge...

 

I forgot the name but I've had them before ans still do and believe their safe.

 

had them before also, now i have a bunch of blue leg hermits in those shells, they didnt live long but didnt hurt anything

 

ok, in that case it will go free and I'll just watch my corals to make sure it isnt munching on anything, heck hes been in there since thursday and hasnt damaged anything

 

looked around an it appears to be a type of cerith snail, everything says they are reef safe...hope it lives long enough to get bigger, it has been cruising around, moving almost as fast as my turbo snails which are much bigger then it

 

Hey Guys,

This snail is a species of Epitonium, or "Wentletrap." There are many similar species, and only a few experts in the world who can ID the small, white, unexceptional ones to the species level. The ones that are easy to separate based on size or unusual shell characteristics are the ones that usually show up in the popular references, unfortunately.

Epitonium species are parasitic snails, usually associated with anemones, although some are found associated with mushroom corals and a few species are known to feed on soft corals. I've only ever collected a few live specimens of epitoniids, and all of them were associated with sand-dwelling solitary anemones.

I did a quick run through the most likely possibilities, but didn't find a snail that was a perfect match for yours. The closest one I found is Epitonium robillardi, which matches in every respect except that the whorls are more inflated, and the shell grows to about 20mm. It looks like yours is considerably smaller than that, even though yours appears to be an adult.

Here is a link to a similar species, Epitonium tenellum. I'm pretty sure your snail is a different species, as this one also has more inflated whorls. The size may be about right though, maxing at around 10mm:

Epitonium (Limiscala) tenellum tenellum

Hope this helps. Cheers,



Don

 

thanks, thats definatly what it is, I did see it this morning on the back wall, maybe eating algae??? it has a long skinny foot(i geuss youd call it) if I see him on my zoas I'll remove him, one of my hermits may pick him up though, hes pretty small, maybe 5mm long(shell length) at the time,

 

My sentiments exactly!