Freeloaders

[dizzy]

Poor bumble bee snail. He has quit a load to bear.
Mitch

 

[fireman26m]

EEK....are those hydroids?

 

[reefland]

That's high fashion under the sea.

It might consider it protection as well, but anything able to chomp up a snail won't be stopped by them.

Nice picture!

 

[Anonymous]

Neat! There's a type of colonial hydroid or coral polyp that live exclusively on certain snail shells here on the West coast. It covers the entire shell in a sort of pink fuzzy mat, very similar looking to that except denser and smaller polyps. Nice way to be mobile for a sessile animal

 

[waymack97]

what are the white things on the snail? i have some on my glass.

 

[Anonymous]

Commonly called "feather dusters", it's a filter feeding polychaete, I think a sabellid polychaete. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, I always forget the difference between terbellid and sabellid.

 

[dizzy]

I'm thinking they are some type of barnacle. They look like feather dusters, but they build a round hard calcarious shell. They are pretty. I'll bet they wouldn't last a New York minute in my butterfly tank. That one came out of a clownfish rearing tank. It is put in there to clean the bottom a little. The density of newly hatched brine is high in that tank so they get well fed. I don't believe they are any threat to the baby clowns.
Mitch

 

[Anonymous]

I'm reasonably sure barnacles can't make spiral shells like that, just my guess though.

 

[dizzy]

Yeah your prolly right Matt. I think they are some type of spirorbis worm.