Unknown Snail ID Help

[KMench]

Noticed this little guy crawling on a piece of monti cap. Don't recall ever seeing him before and just curious if anyone can help ID as good or bad!

 

[DeepBlueSomething]

Tough with those pictures only, but the size and shell suggest a cerith snail

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/1159/cerith-snail?pcatid=1159&c=497+526+1159

 

[KMench]

Kinda what it looked like to me too. l have some in my tank. Was just looking for verification. Thanks!

 

[DeepBlueSomething]

Yeah, there are people better than I that note if it is a left or right shell and all the others, but that is my best thought. Any recent adds? Mine spend a good portion buried in the sand and come out at night...

Hopefully a helpful part of your CuC

 

[DSC reef]

Looks to be cerith

 

[KMench]

Just added a little bit of live sand last week to top off the sand bed. Just noticed a different kind of snail on my shrimps molt. Hope he made out ok with the molt, l helped him out of it because snails were pouncing on him lol. Never noticed all these small snails before. Wonder if there was some reproduction or something t occurring in the tank...:

 

[KMench]

I took a few better pictures. I don't think they're cerith snails based on their long proboscis

 

[reef lover]

Certainly some sort of whelk. A good whelk or a bad whelk is TBD...

 

[KMench]

Is there any kind of snail that eats SPS? I can almost attribute the appearance of these snails to the beginning of the demise of a large monti cap, and I've seen them hanging out on my green slimer / orange cap which don't seem nearly as happy as they used to.

 

[KMench]

Would you pull them out? @reef lover

 

[reef lover]

Bad whelks tend to eat clams and other snails not sps coral.

Would you pull them out? @reef lover

 

[KMench]

Hmm ok. I can't figure out why some of my sps seem less than thrilled recently. Haven't changed a thing and only recently began noticing those snails after adding a 10 lb bag of "live sand" the other day

 

[cracker]

where did the sand come from?

 

[KMench]

Caribsea sand

 

[DeniseAndy]

I would pull one out and photo in glass container. Then check with #lionfishlair. If welks I would remove.

 

[KMench]

I checked the lionfish lair website and couldn’t really find anything that matched. @reef lover seems certain they are whelks. So I’ll just be safe and start pulling them out when I see them.

 

[KMench]

If they’re whelks, is it possible they would have killed a cleaner shrimp who had molted?

 

[reef lover]

Narrcissarous sanils are in the whelk family. Hence good whelk bad whelk. I've seen black nars. Before.put them in the sump if your unsure about them. I've read where u can tell the difference if you can see the eyes at the base of the two front tentacles they're nars. But I've never been able to confirm this.

 

[KMench]

Ok. Turns out these little suckers are definitely bad. They’ve been eating all my corals, I saw a pocillopora go from happy with great PE to white with the little guy leaving the trail of white! I’ve been pulling them every time I see them now and i think I’m finally winning the battle.

 

[KMench]

Any idea of what might eat them, but not my cleaner shrimp? I have an ornate wrasse who clearly ignores them. The snails keep attacking my sps and are even moving on to lps. Now I’m finding the next generation of them (tiny tiny) and they’re super hard to spot for manual removal.