Astrea snails reproducing? Hundreds of babies...

[jrgilles]

Looked at my tank last night, and I noticed a lot of small white specs on the underside of my snails. I saw them on all the astrea snails that were on the glass of my tank. On closer examination, they appeared to be tiny (1-1.5 mm) white, cone shaped shells. A bit more elongated than the astreas. From a distance it looked like the bottom of the snails were covered in tiny grains of rice, maybe 50-100 of them per snail.

It appears the astreas are reproducing? Looks like I'm about to have 1000+ babies.....

I took some pseudo macro pics yesterday, and I'll post them tonight. Just wanted to see if anyone has seen this before.

They are piggybacking on the bottom of the big snail shells.

I also have cerith snails, and used to have nassarius, but they have disappeared (either when my salinity somehow dropped or they became coral banded shrimp food)

Hopefully this isn't something unknown. I'll post the pics in a couple hours

rob

 

[Rothany]

Ill buy some off of you, when they grow a little bigger =)

 

[jrgilles]

Great. I think I'm going to move a bunch of the adults to my fuge. I'd like to get pics up though and make sure its not some killer paraiste snail that is going to destroy the world....

 

[burning2nd]

Oh boy... sounds like pyramid snails a parasite that attacks snails...

eazy to remove.. hard to get rid of.. takes months.. of daily removing... Im unsure cause you have not posted the pic.. but my bet is on that..

correct me if Im wrong someone but snails don't carry there baby's.. they lay them...

ive witnessed several times my ceriths laying eggs on glass... but they almost never grow... All tho ive seen a few new lil lil baby snails here and there..

sorry for the bad news hope Im wrong... baby snails would be GREAT!

 

[jrgilles]

Ah, man. I just bought a t. desara clam at the sale last weekend. Wonder if these piggybacked in to my tank. Probably too soon to come from that... but if they are a clam parasite, maybe....

I'll get pics up. Just did a google image search and I'm pretty sure thats what they are.

I'll check my desara clam out when I get home, but I found image searches of these guys on astrea snails.

Going to be impossible to get out....

 

[jrgilles]

maybe I need to put in a wrasse....

 

[jrgilles]

Well, been reading online about these. Seems there are many species of pyramids, and the ones that attack clams stay on clams and the ones that attack snails stay with snails, so not oppertunistic.

They could also be rissoid snails, as only microscopic examination can distinguish them. Maybe this is where all my nassarius snails disappeared to. I'll remove what I can from the snails on the glass anyway. Pics still to come (on the bus heading home now)

 

[saltwaterfishes]

I've lost a few snails when I discovered pyramid snails in my tank. Didn't get to my clams.
Ever since I added a wrasse, never see another pyramid snails again.

 

[jrgilles]

Well, I just took out all the astrea snails I could find. Wiped these guys off with my finger and they came right off no problem, so they didn't appear to be attached by much. Felt like wiping sand off of them. Easy. I have them in a tupperware now.

I only see them on my astrea, none on the clam at all. Didn't seem that they bored into the shell or anything. They were only located on the bottom of the shell and right around the edge where it turns up. None on the flesh of the snails.

I see none on the clam. Maybe one near the base, but it is not covered the way the snails were.

Here are some pics I snapped last night:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jrgilles/PyramidSnails?feat=directlink

 

[saltwaterfishes]

That's what my snails used to look like. I was removing them everyday for awhile but couldn't completely get rid of them until I added a wrasse.

 

[burning2nd]

remove the snails one by one as you see them and clean then with your finger..

and replace em...

its gonna take months to brake the life cycle but its pritty eazy to win

 

[ReefLogic]

Any chance of getting a pic?