Something new and Exciting after 13 years!

Almost every reefer has that moment early in the hobby when something magical and surprising shows up on their new rock. foraminiferans, corals, mantis shrimp, heck even my first majano anemone was exciting until I knew better (the latter being a member of my tank to this day... on purpose, and just one ;-)

Tonight I had another one of those moments. For those of you who know me, I'm on forums...... alot...... like 4-5 hours a day. Constantly plugging away at the minutia of details this hobby can encompass. Through this hobby I've learned how to wire electrical components, masonry, plumbing, carpentry, organic chemistry.... Lets face it, its been my passion for over a decade. Imagine my jaded surprise when lying in bed I remembered I didn't take my wine glass feeder off of my suncoral, and found SOMETHING new!

A dozen small snails of a body type I've never seen.... A DOZEN! My first thought, as most experienced reefers react was "ZOMG KILL THEM ALL WITH FIR3!!!!" And as I pulled my glass bell out of the water I was fortunate enough to pull two up inside of it. These critters flipping booked!

I hit the internet looks for "PREDATORY SNAIL" on what the kids are calling "teh googl3" while my beautiful and dedicated wife took pictures for pogajoe to ID for me. Finally I found the image matching my snail perfectly. It was a Peppermint snail, and after a few minutes I even got a scientific name off a thread from 2005, Hyalina albolineata.

Apparently 'reefsafe' and in demand from any mention I've found, this nocturnal scavenger is akin to a naassaurius snail and in hearty populations in my 125g to my surprise.

 

Cool find! I'm gunna look into these.. I hope to hear more about them from you! (how they're behaving, etc)

 

Lol Zero I'm still trying to find more info. Apparently there are people for the last ten year that keep wanted to build 'research tanks' for them, and Inland Reef used to sell them as captive bred CuC members. They are native to the Caribbean, and honestly they could have been in my tanks for 10 years as a hitchhiker on live rock. There is surprising little information.

 

Yeah.. I googled them, and there really isn't much. Maybe you can be the one to change that!

 

Alex, I think they may need more than 5ml of water

Cool find though! Always awesome to find something new in your tank, especially something "rare".

 

Pagojoe will know the scoop.

Cool Alex, I am envious.

 

I have also not seen anything like this until now, Thanks for sharing this with us. It is rare and I was not knowing about this until now.

 

I know right?! Well here is something, they LOVE Coral Frenzy

I don't know if they are rare, but being tiny and nocturnal definitely do not help their popularity. I put those two back in the tank after I figured they were safe.

I figure as much, thanks!

There is always something like that in the hobby. Seriously these could have been in my tanks for 12 years and I just now found them in a fluke encounter.

 

Get a breeding population going and make millions! "Alex's Super Rare Snails" for sale.

Its cool how they could have been there for so long. I can't wait to see what pagojoe has to say.

 

lol! If there get to be alot and somebody REALLY wanted some I would just give them away. I got some stomotellas from a 3reef years ago but they didnt make it. I also got some from Drew the other day hopefully they start breeding too.