What type of snail is this???

[Executivelevel]

I was told it was an astrea snail but it when I looked up astrea snails they didnt look like this..

it is pretty big and is very active spending a lot of time in the sand.

thanks!

[sweetriden76]

looks like a nassarius snail to me, they spend alot of time in the sand and emerge to feed, the burst out of nowhere, pretty cool to see, they are reef safe so it should be fine...def. not an astrea though as they have a cone shaped shell and eat algae, also they dont burrow in the sand that i know of

[Executivelevel]

Im not sure, I just looked up nassaruis snails and read they only get up to about 1/2 inch to an inch. This one has a shell that is about 1.5 in or more and the bottom part is about 3in, and his little air hole thing is at least a half in.!!

[gazog]

Originally Posted by Executivelevel

Im not sure, I just looked up nassaruis snails and read they only get up to about 1/2 inch o an inch. This one has a shell that is about 1.5 in or more and the bottom part is about 3in, and his little air hole thing is at least a half in.!!

I don't know where you read that, if its true then I must be feeding mine growth hormones, I have 6 ranging in size from 1\2" to 2 1\2" thee big one has a foot that 3 or 4" long.

EDIT: And by the way several of mine look exactly like yours...

[Executivelevel]

thats sounds about right then, mine is that big too, so was $6 to much then

[Linda]

I have 3 of those guys and our LFS calls 'em sand snails (aka nassaruis). I think they should be re-named Periscope Snails.

[pagojoe]

Hi Exec,

It's not an Astraea snail for sure, as the others noted. The pic is just enough out of focus that I can't tell whether it's a Nassarius or a Babylonia species.

There are only a few species of Nassarius that get as large as yours, and only a couple really resemble yours. Of those two, neither typically has spots like your snail appears to have. The Nassarius species that it COULD be include Nassarius arcularius, the typical "Giant Tongan Nassarius" (which I've never seen in Tonga) and another snail that is often mixed with them, but doesn't grow quite as large, Nassarius coronatus.

Nassarius (Nassarius) arcularius arcularius
Nassarius (Nassarius) arcularius plicatus

Nassarius (Nassarius) coronatus

There are a few Nassarius species that look even more like yours, but all the ones I know of don't grow over an inch long (25mm). You still might want to compare to these pics:

Shell Catalogue - Family NASSARIIDAE NASSARIINAE

The spots on the shell make it look more like a Babylonia species, although I'm not familiar enough with the animals in this genus to know if any of them are white, like yours. Babylonia snails can be a problem in a reef tank, since in addition to being scavengers, they may also catch and kill other animals, including clams of any sort and other gastropods, if they get hungry. You can compare your snail to these pics:

Shell Catalogue - Family BABYLONIIDAE

If you want to try to take a clearer pic, or photograph the snail out of the tank in a dish of water, I'll be glad to take another stab at it.

Cheers,



Don

[Executivelevel]

it looks like to me a babylonia areolata, man i had no idea there were so many different shell patterns, crazy, ill get a better pic when he comes out again

[pagojoe]

Yeah, Babylonia areolata is one of the two species most often sold to the aquarium market as "Fancy Nassarius." Use caution with them, especially if you have any clams in the tank.

Cheers,



Don

[Executivelevel]

i do unfortunatly have a flame scallop, but hes twice as big as the snail, i guess i can trade in the scallop for something else, ohwell, thanks for the info on the snails for me, karma to u