I just found a Heliacus snail on my polyps

[Mike02]

i was looking for one of my margarita snails, thought i spotted it under some zooanthus polyps, but on a 2nd look realized that wasnt it. This thing was black and white with a spiral like shell and a cone shaped door. i removed it. i hope theyre arent anymore in the tank! just thought i'd share that. thanks

 

[Anonymous]

There's one of these suckers in my girlfriends 6 gallon nano reef, amongst the pink zooanthids. I take it I should kill the thing? What do I do with it? What does it do, eat the polyps?

Thanks for the help.

Peace,

Chip

 

[Mike02]

I'm cutting n pasting the following from a reefs.org source:

They are a hitchhiker commonly found on colonies of zoanthid polyps. A distinguishing characteristic of this snail is that the "door" (operculum) that covers the animal when it retracts into its shell is cone shaped (as seen on the picture page). This snail is a nocturnal predator of zoanthid polyps and should be removed. When removing this snail, be sure to check for smaller ones nestled in between the polyps.

 

[Anonymous]

I shall take care of this problem tomorrow. Thanks much for the tip! You saved the 75+ polyp pink zooanthid colony from being lunch...

Peace,

Chip

 

[Mike02]

Chip, here's the link i was looking at. And at the bottom of the page, there are more links that mite help u out in the future. http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/pages/main_pages/faq_rock2.htm