Snail... evil or not?

This snail came as a hitchiker on my carnation. At first I thought it was possibly part of the coral because the colors were almost identical, it didn't leave the carnation until sometime last night (I brought it home Saturday) last night I took a pic of it on the coral, this morning it was on a powerhead.

Often it's best to remove it if you don't know what it is, and my gut says to remove it. Does anyone know what it is?


In this pic it's almost dead center and it's not moving at the moment.


In this pic it's on the move.

 

no clue but what a wild looking snail never seen one like that

 

It didn't seem to hurt the coral it was on, it's cool and pretty (lol) so I want to keep it but I am just so unsure!!

 

Someone on #reefs (IRC channel) said the following.

09:17 <@leftovers> symbiotic snail that will most likely die
09:18 <@leftovers> appears to color match that coral it came in on...
09:18 < bc> should i kill it or just let it go?
09:18 <@leftovers> so it might not be all that symbiotic...but more than likely
09:18 <@leftovers> let it be
09:18 < bc> ok cool, its pretty but i didnt want it to kill anything
09:18 <@leftovers> if you had dozens id be concerned
09:19 < bc> whys that though?
09:19 <@leftovers> dozens mean they are usually eating the animal they came in
on....hosting on it
09:20 <@leftovers> 1 or 2 usually mean a symbiotic or hosting relationship



Sooooo....

 

dude sweet snail keep it...im sure if it does do damage you will know before anything dies...watch him and keep an eye one if it eats algae...it might eat algae off of corals which is good!;D;D;D theres also this site that identifys bad snails and good snail by their shell type ill try to find it for you

 

Please, that would be helpful. I've been googling around for snail ID's good/bad/etc and haven't found much.

 

damn man theres wayyyyyy to many snails!!! tried lookin for ya but the only thing i came up with is some cowries kill other snails but im pretty sure that snail isnt one...i think the most it can do is eat your coraline algae...i hav heard of a type of snail that eats the mantel of those purple and blue clams but other than that ive never heard of a snail harming coral

 

does the colorfull flesh withdraw from the shell if you poke at it? Even if it is a cowrie, it may not be harmfull.

 

I haven't had a chance to poke it yet. It has now taken up refuge in a part of the powerhead that I can't get to.

I was thinking also that it could be a slug of some sort? I'm unable to tell if the shell part is hard or not btw.

 

good luck with that carnation BTW, I have never seen one kept in alive in a tank for very long