Carnivorous Snail

[Brian5000]

I've only seen a pair of these snails out in the open once before.

We had an accident today during feeding where my clownfish accidentally nipped one of my cleaner shrimp in a feeding frenzy. The cleaner shrimp was down and out about 30 minutes later. The interesting part is that these snails almost instantly swarmed the dying shrimp (they seem to move VERY fast for a snail).

Anyone have an idea what they are?
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Mercedes 35 hp

 

[engineerfish]

I have some similar that I have collected accidently while gathering bait in the Gulf of Mexico. They will not attack live prey but will rapidly devour anything dead and meaty. I believe they are a small species of cowrie and do not get larger than 1/2 inch. I even have had mine breed and are excellent for keeping the substrate clean. They like a deep sand bed as this is were they retreat to after feeding. They are nocturnal but will come out if food is smelled from snorkel like appendage. This appendage is all you see when they bury themselves. I would not destroy them as they are excellent scavengers. The shells of mine have a black rim on bottom with a white background speckled with chestnut brown spots. The appeal of these is that they appear to have been polished as the shell is very lustious. Do not harm corals.

 

[Brian5000]

Thanks for the reply.

I had no intention of destroying them. I know they've been in there a while, but I haven't had much of a chance to observe them until now.
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Italian Forum

 

[trido]

They are called Nassarius snails. They burrow in the sand and use their parascope snout to smell food (or see, I forget). You can buy them at the LFS for part of your cleaner crew. Alot of reefers keep them including myself

 

[misael]

I have many snails similar to the ones pictured above. The stripes on the shell aren't as apparent on mine, so perhaps it's a slightly different variety. Mine definitely reproduce, since I see little bitty ones as well, with the largest being about a quarter inch. They hide under rocks and other objects, but I've never seen them dig into the sand like Nassarius snails (I have a couple of those too). To me they look more like cowrie, except that the mantle doesn't cover shell.

Mine come out whenever I put food in the tank. Occasionally I'll put in live black worms for my copperband butterfly, and these snails eat as many as they can -- you can actually see the worms through their skin being dragged behind them. One of my turbo snails died recently, and these little guys went to town. I've never seen them harm anything I care about.

Now if only I could get them to eat my red planaria...

 

[mr_X]

are you sure they are nassarius snails? they look alot different than mine.

 

[misael]

Here's a picture of one of mine. I think they're actually quite beautiful if you look closely, not to mention the fact that they're efficient scavengers.

 

[mr_X]

that looks like a close cousin of the nassarius maybe.

 

[brandonberry]

misael, yours is a type of olive snail. I've been told that our native species of olive is carnivorous, but I don't know about this species. It is hard to tell from the picture if that is the same as the ones in the original post. They look a little different to me.

 

[brandonberry]

I just found them in The Reef Aquarium vol.3. They are called peppermint snails, Hyalina albolineata and are scavengers. The book states that Inland Marine sells them.