Pyram Snail Ident./Behavior

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scytale

Caladanman
Joined
Oct 24, 2006
Messages
359
Location
Kirkland, WA
Can someone help me identify pyramid snails?

I've already read: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/jf/index.php and
http://www.reefaquariumforum.com/my-clam-has-pyram-snails-now-what-do-i-do-t2760.html

But I don't understand what it means to have an "apical shell whorl" that "runs perpendicular"... :confused: (I know apical = apex/tip)
Could someone post a quick sketch of what a perpendicular vs parallel whorl means?

I saw 2 small white smalls on my new 5' crocea last night :(
But only 1 this morning when I started to clean it. (that 1 snail is now in tupperware on my counter, about to die a slow death.)

Also do pyrams stay on thier host all the time? (i.e. do they stay in the buffet line) or do they eat-and-run?

Travis.
 
Yep I have read that 1st article before and I actually work @Google---so am pretty familiar with Google Image Search. :p (and FWIW "pyramidellid snails" yields much better results IMO.)
But was hoping someone could explain what a "parallel apical whorl" is, in layman's terms.

This article http://www.reefland.com/rho/2006/05/identify_rissoid_pyramidellid_snails.php comes SO CLOSE to doing exactly that...but the relevant figures (2.4-4.A) seem to be missing...

Leaving just the text, which i can't make heads nor tails of...

"Rissoids differ from the pyrams in that they lack the heterostrophic shell coiling, they possess a proteinaceous operculum and the inner edge of their shell apertures are smooth, and lacking any hint of a fold in the calcareous shell material. Any one of these three characters will always separate Pyrams from Rissoids." :confused:

Travis.
(Regardless, I'm on the search for a good Wrasse now!)
 
scytale said:
"Rissoids differ from the pyrams in that they lack the heterostrophic shell coiling, they possess a proteinaceous operculum and the inner edge of their shell apertures are smooth, and lacking any hint of a fold in the calcareous shell material. Any one of these three characters will always separate Pyrams from Rissoids." :confused:
Click to expand...

What, none of that makes sense to you?:D

I'm in the same boat as you are. I think I have them also and I'm waiting on Les@WPH for one of these guys. http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+1378+1152&pcatid=1152 Hopefully he finds one sooner then later.
 
I
'm in the same boat as you are. I think I have them also and I'm waiting on Les@WPH for one of these guys. http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...52&pcatid=1152 Hopefully he finds one sooner then later.
Click to expand...

I picked up a Six line because I was told it would eat the snails, but guess what the snails are nocturnal and the fish isn't so they never met.
IMO, cleaner crew snails are the biggest carrier of the pyrams, if you have them quarantine them until you clean off all the snails and they don't return for double the incubation period. At the same time about an hour or 2 after the lights go out clean the snails off your clams and remove the snails from the tank. Then after the last snail was seen on the clam wait at least double the incubation period of the snail before reintroducing the cleaner crew snails and stopping the nightly checks. This worked for me when nothing else did, but it was a pain. Oh i also found by raising the clam off the sand a few inches i had less snails to clean off as it seems they bury into the sand next to the clams.
 
Thanks for the info.

The snails in my tank are pretty fearless, I see them in the daytime too. Hopefully that will change once I can get a wrasse. (of course, just my luck no one--BR, SWC, nor BS--has any wrasses this week. :mad: )

Thanks for the tip on raising it off the sand--I bought a small, shallow tupperware container, hopefully that will help.
(Going to try to get some black sand or gravel to put in the tupperware container--will hopefully make spotting those darn white snails a lot easier! )
 
Nano-hermits!

Did my daily clam check this morning (2 hrs before lights come on)--and I found zero "snails" on my Clam! :)

But I had the dissection scope all setup already--so I thought I might as well use it...

So I pulled 4 random "snails" off the rockwork, and started looking...

But I found that they're not "snails" at all--they're hermit CRABS!! :D
"Nano-crabs"!! with tiny legs, antenna, even cute little pincers!

Has anyone heard of these before?

Obviously if they're hermit crabs, then they didn't grow the intricate spiral shells on their own--they must have have wiped out a pyram or rissoid snail population...

Could these be a useful pyram predator...?
 
I'd have to say no. The crab is only going to kill 1 snail to get it's shell. I doubt you'd see hermits killing them for food being that there are easier ways to get it.
 
gotfish said:
I'd have to say no. The crab is only going to kill 1 snail to get it's shell. I doubt you'd see hermits killing them for food being that there are easier ways to get it.
Click to expand...

Sure, and snails could almost certainly re-produce faster than crabs.

But, the crab will kill 1 snail each time it wants a *new* shell... (and IME hermits can be pretty mean too--they'll kill a snail just because "it looked at me the wrong way"... :badgrin: )

Plus it's not always about what's easiest, right? What if snail meat is "delicious" (the French seem to think so :razz: )--maybe the crab goes the xtra mile to snack on snail...or better yet, snail EGGS!
(That would be awesome--a pyram-egg-eating crab--get those little buggers before they even hatch! :evil: )
 
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