Snail I.D. Predator??

ya and do welks have that long snout? id bet my life savings that its a nassarious snail

 

No, but mine would end up half buried in the sand sometimes, before making their way out. They don't all hunt for fish either. They eat clams, barnacles, mussels, and other bivalves. Mine never went after fish, just the bivalves.

Definitely. Mine did. I found 8 of them inside a clam I put in the tank 2 days earlier, eating it. When I took them all off, they ran straight back to the clam, and they use that lip on the end of the shell like a crowbar to pry the clam open.

Here's a link for reference. Go to the dropdown box, and go to 93, 94 and 95 for pics. These are the exact ones I had. The foot extends farther back when they're moving than the pics show.

The shell isn't quite the same on the whelk as this one, though. The largest point was in the middle, but this snail is on the end.

 

Ah, you guys are doing a lot of generalizing and guessing, lol. It's not a Super Tongan Nassarius. The ones sold to the hobby as that species are either Nassarius coronatus or Nassarius arcularius, both of which have stronger plications on the ultimate whorl near the suture (with a very similar outline), and both of which have a squarish look to the ultimate whorl, viewed from the top. This makes the spires appear much shorter than the one in billyboy's post:

Nassarius (Nassarius) coronatus
Nassarius (Nassarius) arcularius arcularius
Nassarius (Nassarius) arcularius plicatus

Since Nassarius are relatives of the whelks, they may behave similarly, or not. Some Nassarius rarely bury themselves, while other are almost always buried. There are many hundreds of species of buccinid whelks, and they also vary in their behavior. Some are associated with rocks, some with sand, some with mud, etc. Some mainly scavenge, and some are voracious predators. Even among the Nassarius species, some are much more likely to finish off a (currently living) potential meal than others.

Here are some pics of buccinid whelks. Some aren't at all similar to Nassarius, but some of them will make you stop and think:

Shell Catalogue - Family BUCCINIDAE BUCCININAE BUCCININI
http://www.gastropods.com/Taxon_pages/TN_Family_BUCCINIDAE_PISANIINAE.shtml

Most Nassarius have short spires. Most of the similar whelks have taller spires. Billboy's looks somewhat like both, which is why we're discussing it. For comparison, here's the Nassarius page:

Shell Catalogue - Family NASSARIIDAE NASSARIINAE

Although it looks very much like a whelk, I think it's probably a tall-spired Nassarius, although not one of the species commonly encountered in the hobby. It's similar to Nassarius reticulatus, as well as the top photo in the above link of Nassarius livescens (assuming this isn't a misidentified N. reticulatus).

I'd still like to see the aperture for confirmation, though.

Cheers,



Don

BTW, the whelks in the TBS link in the post above are all Gemophos tinctus, a Florida/Gulf/Caribbean species.

 

pagojoe, you are my favorite