Looking for a coco worm ID?

[Cwazy Clown]

I just realized that inside this giant spiral looking shell on one of my frag plugs, theres movement!

I'm going to assume its a worm or some sort, the spiral itself if about 1/2" across and its a very bizarre creature. It actually secretes out a line of mucus or some sort of sticky substance about 3" long to capture floating stuff in the water. Then it slowely eats the mucus string and all that stuff that it has catured.

Does anyone happen to know what this is? I'll try and take a picture tomorrow.

 

[mojoreef]

Sounds like a snail to me. Dammed if I could ever remember the names of these things, but they will either bored in to a rock or coral or they will live in short tubes. All of them usually put a hatch cover on their living quarters and then they will pop it opn and put out a slime line to catch prey and then suck it in to feed on it. Try Leslies forum she really good at Id.

 

[user 26995]

Those are vermetid snails
Heres just a little info on them
Worm snails aren't worms

 

[mojoreef]

thats them, good catch!!

Mojo

 

[LeslieH]

Ayup, vermetid snail. From the description it sounds like one of the larger species that don't spread in tanks - which is good. There's some very common small species that are capable of taking over pretty much all the available hard substrate.

 

[Cwazy Clown]

Ah, yes, that is definitely it, and Leslie, you're probably correct. The snail I have is giant... and the slime trail is huge, at least 4" long and a huge eye sore. Do these snails do any beneficial part to the reef tank? I really want to remove it.

 

[user 26995]

Not in my opinion. They do more harm than good. They will irritate the coral and can cause them to die. In particular, zoas and palys. It irritates them enough that they dont open and if they dont open they die.
If it were in my tank, which I did have one, I personally would get rid of it.

 

[Cwazy Clown]

ahh okay, currently the snail is actually competing with my granulosa frag for frag plug space...

Out this guy goes