Tiny White Snail

I have come across quite a few of these tiny snails since setting up my 10 gallon tank. It has been about 1.5 months. They are mainly white in color, with a green spot at the tip/cone of their shell. The white also has orange color polka dots which follow the spiral curvature if the shell.

They are maybe about 2 centimeters total in size.

These are new to me as I do not recall seeing anything like this in my 29 gallon which is still currently setup and running.

I tried taking a photo but they are just too small.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

I suspect they are eulimids, which are parasitic on echinoderms (although you may find them scattered around the tank or under rocks occasionally). They are the only snails I can think of that are that small and show the "polka dots" around the whorls of the shells. I don't guess they are particularly great for echinoderms, but most of them don't seem to be terribly harmful. The dots are mostly, or entirely, on the animal, and the shells of most species are white or clear once the animal is removed.

Cheers,



Don

 

Thank you for the reply, Don.

I have at least few astrea sea stars I put in the tank that were previously in my 29 gallon. Are you saying I may see a decrease in the population of these due to this snail (if your ID is correct)?

I did a Google search of your suggestion and couldn't find anything that looked like what I have. Most of the images were just the empty shels, and even those were too pointy/cone shaped compared to what I have. Mine do come to a point, but are fairly round shaped overall.

 

I really wish I could get you a photo for a clear ID.

 

If you send the snails to me, I could take pictures.

 

http://www.lionfishlair.com/hitchhiker/hitchhiker.shtml

Check it out!! I use em when I need to identify my infiltrators.

 

Thanks for the link, Moby Duck. Great Site, Renee...haven't looked at it in a while. But my snail wasn't on the list. However, I did see a cool black sponge I have on my LR. Now I know for sure it's good.

Thanks for the offer Renee; I'm not sure how much it would be to ship from OH to CA. :-/

 

It would cost just a couple of stamps if you wrapped them in wet paper and drooped them in regular postage.

The option is there if you ever need it.

 

I do have some padded shipping envelopes. Thanks for the offer.

I tried to grab one with tweezers but it went into the sandbed.

 

A padded envelope would more than do it.