Baby cerith snails?

bct15 · Feb 8, 2011

I have been noticing a bunch of small white snails near the bottom of my tank. These are different then the typical tiny white snails I see as they are much more elongated. My ceriths always have egg strands on my rocks and glass, I was wondering if perhaps some survived. Below is a pic I took with about ten of them on the side of an Astraea snail.

They have only been on the back of snails and on rocks so I don't think they are coral predators. Let me know what you think. I was under the impression that cerith snails are next to impossible to reproduce in a reef due to low survival rate of the eggs via predators, flow, etc. There is a lot starting to pop up in my tank.

Thanks,
Brandon

skinz78 · Feb 8, 2011

Well you are partially correct. They aren't coral predators but they are invert predators. They are Pyramid snails, there is hundreds of different types and most attack Clams. Seems you have the type that attack other snails, if you have clams you should check them too. I have had both kinds and you need to manually remove them ASAP and also look for egg masses on their hosts. If not they will kill the hosts.

bct15 · Feb 9, 2011

Yikes, I didn't realize they were eating the snail they were riding. I've already found three snails with them on them and removed probably twenty or twenty five total. Thy only seem to be on my Astraea snails, and not all of them. It's time to hitthe books and then I'll try to find some more tonight. Thanks for the heads up.