Pyramid Snails

Discussion in 'ID This!' started by zjpeter, Oct 21, 2009.

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  1. zjpeter

    zjpeter Ritteri Anemone

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    so this is what happens when you don't ever pay attention to your snails. this poor guy is dragging along 10 small white spiral snails, my other snails have a few as well. don't know where they came from, i just noticed them today so i don't know how long they've been around. I know the MAJORITY of pyramid snails feast on clams but i'm aware of a few species that suck on other snails. does anyone have a positive id? as for prescribed action, i figured i would just pull all my snails out every once in a while and tweez these buggers off til i stop finding them

    -you can also see what i think is a vermitid snail on the NE quadrant of the snail shell, poor snail

    [​IMG]
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  3. amcarrig

    amcarrig Super Moderator

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  4. pgoodsell

    pgoodsell Horrid Stonefish

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    Good read. But if you look at the last post on page 2 he says this

    "Rissoids will almost never be on another snail."

    So its hard to say.
     
  5. Tangster

    Tangster 3reef Sponsor

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    You have any clams ? pyramid snails are very specific feeders ..
     
  6. zjpeter

    zjpeter Ritteri Anemone

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    yeah, the biggest concern i have is that these things are riding the snails. someone said their that it would be almost impossible to id without a microscope. i have not, but i suppose a better crop of my crappy macro mode on my crappy camera would help.
    [​IMG]
     
  7. zjpeter

    zjpeter Ritteri Anemone

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    i do not have clams and never had clams, thats one of the bigger facts that these aren't parasitic
     
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  9. pgoodsell

    pgoodsell Horrid Stonefish

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    That post did say that they feed off of more than just clams, they just pick one and stay with it. The ones that feed on snails wont feed on clams and visa versa.
     
  10. zjpeter

    zjpeter Ritteri Anemone

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    i think i'm going to pluck them off regardless. why mess around when i can take 5 minutes every week and toss them out. i thought since i had relatively decent picture, if i could get a solid ID, i could upload this to the ID library. if we can't say for certain i'll just leave it be. thanks guys
     
  11. pgoodsell

    pgoodsell Horrid Stonefish

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    Ya unfortunately I have new clue how to id them. Hopefully some one else can. That last picture shows some pretty good detail on them.
     
  12. pagojoe

    pagojoe Corkscrew Tentacle Anemone

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    Yup, those are definitely pyramidellids, and you'll want to remove them. The vermetid won't hurt anything. Sorry if I confused any of you about the clam vs. snail pyramidellids. There are a bunch of species, and as far as I know, the ones that specialize on clams are not the same species that specialize on turbinids. The subfamily to which these belong isn't well represented, photographically, on the internet, so it's hard to ID them to species level without some real scientific referenes. Even then, the literature is scattered, and there aren't many Turbonilla experts in the world. Hardy's web site lists 442 valid species of Turbonilla. There are pics of only 37 of them! I think there is a good chance that your species isn't depicted, but you can see the similarities:

    Shell Catalogue - Family PYRAMIDELLIDAE TURBONILLINAE TURBONILLINI

    The "ring" just below the suture, the size of the protoconch (apex) compared to the size of the shell, number and size of the ribs, the overall convex outline, and the size and shape of the aperture will be the keys to identifying it.

    Cheers,




    Don
     
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