can anyone ID this mystery snail?

[GOES4EVER]

I have a boatload of these in my 90 gallon tank, they are about 1/4 inch in size some smaller, they seem to be reproducing quite rapidly. Looks similar in shape to a astrea snail, but this snail is bright white and brown. I know it is not the "predatory" snail that feeds on polyps, I have a pic of those in Julians book to compare, and it is nothing like that.
I have watched them quite a bit and they seem to be algae grazers, cruising the glass and live rock, more active at night. Sorry about quality of the pic, but it was near impossible to photograph something so small. Thanks for any help

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[Chucker]

Harmless. There are pics of them in the HHFAQ.

 

[Len]

and for those who are too lazy to search , the facts can be found at:
http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/

 

[THEFishHead]

Dear Goes4Ever,

The snail you have there is harmless, as Chucker told you. It feeds on diatoms and detritus, and multiplies prolifically as you've seen. The only downside to it is that the shells tend to get stuck on pump intake strainers and reduce water flow. Yes, they are active at night.

These snails also have an odd attraction to the shells of Tridacnid clams, though they do no harm to the clams. If you look in The Reef Aquarium vol 2 (p. 423) you find a photo of them on a clam shell. At the time we wrote the book Charles and I were not sure whether they were harmful. We now know that they aren't.

I included this snail in my new book Invertebrates: A Quick Reference Guide, on page 104. I was unable to find a precise identification for the snail, but placed it for comparison with Stomatella (even though I knew it did not belong to that genus) because the closest relatives to it that I found were relatives of Stomatella, for example the genus Synaptocochlea and the genus Microtis.

Stomatellas lack an operculum, but this snail has one. Some authors consider Stomatellas to be merely a subfamily of Trochidae, and I agree.

I had a look at the HHFAQ. It is suggested there, as well as in the link to a reply by Ron Shimek, that this snail may be a species of Arene or Macarene. I don't think it is, though it is certainly closely related to them.

Sincerely,

Julian Sprung

 

[esmithiii]

I have tons of them, and at first I was worried, but they don't seem to do any damage.

Ernie