Pyramid snails only on Astreas?

[Maxx]

Earlier today I saw pyramid snails on one of my Astrea snails. Tonight, I pulled out as many of the Astrea's as I could find(I only have 7 and found all of em I think), and scrubbed off about 100 or so pyramid snails.

I also pulled out one of my two Mexican Turbo snails, (couldnt find the other) and found NO pyramid snails on it.

I have 3 clams in this tank, (58 gallon BB SPS reef), a Crocea, a Maxima, and a Derasa. The Derasa is the largest being approx 6-7 inches in length, the crocea is next being approx 5 inches in length, and finally the Maxi is only about 1.5 inches in length. The Maxi sits on the bottom of the tank, because it wont attach to anything and keeps getting knocked over. I pulled it out because it was easiest to get to and didnt see any pyramid snails on it, and close visual examination of the other two (left in tank) didnt show any signs of pyramid snails.

I've heard conflicting stories regarding this pest. One side says if they're on snails, they wont go to clams as they are host specific. The other says they're equal opportunity and will go where the food is.

Does anyone have a real idea what the truth is?

Nick

 

[Maxx]

Pics

I dont have a macro lense, so this is the best I could do under the circumstances. They are sort of off white, some are kinda grey-ish....if it helps any.

Nick

 

[Maxx]

Here is a slightly adjusted photo....larger and Irfanview'd to make slightly more viewable.

Nick

 

[jblabs]

Can't help much except to say that I have a similar situation. The astrea in my frag tank have a bunch of them but none in my display on the clams.

 

[NaH2O]

Nick - check the clams before the lights come on, and see if any make a migration when the lights are off. I've heard both sides of the argument, as well. There might be different species of pyramillidae, so it could be a snail specific one (I have no clue how many species there are or if they are equal opportunity clams and astreas). If you pulled that many off of your astraea snails, and didn't see any on your clams, then these may be snail only. I'm just guessing though....it might be the snails are easier to get to. Were the pyramid snails on the astrea tissue or on the shell?

 

[Barry N.]

Check around the byssal (footing) a few times a week and if you see any there, that is not good.

 

[Maxx]

They were only on the shell of the Astrea's, not the tissue. Makes me really think they might be species specific. I checked last night on the clams at about 1 am, (so this morning really...) and saw no snails.....couple of tiny pods that were smaller than the snails though....

Nick

 

[loohunter]

ive caught them on both, but more times than not only on the snails. i figure that is better than my precious clams

 

[Maxx]

Barry,
I appreciate your taking the time to come answer my question. I pulled my little Maxima out of the tank to inspect it and saw no snails anywhere on the clam. This clam actually sits on the bottom of my tank and if any of my clams were to get pyramid snails, that would be th one.

I will most certainly keep a close eye on the byssal region of my clams, and continue searching for them.

Interestingly enough, I posted on a thread in Dr Ron's new forum to see what he had to say. Here is a cut and paste:

Hi Nick,

You said, " I've heard conflicting stories regarding this pest. One side says if they're on snails, they wont go to clams as they are host specific.

This is correct.

The other says they're equal opportunity and will go where the food is."

This is dribbles from a bull. I will leave it to you to fill in what kind of dribbles.

Pyrams are parasites of specific animals, some go for clams, some go for worms, some go for snails, some go for sea anemones, etc. Then within those categories, they specialize further to species or groups of species of closely related hosts.

They are not opportunistic parasites...

Pyramid Snail or Something Else?

Nice to know...but I'm still gonna check anyway. He also mentioned that another type of snail is very common in reeftanks, known as a rissoid snail. Alledgedly, these Rissoids are not parasites but are detritovores. Which causes me to wonder if that explains why they were on the shells of my astrea's (underneath and occassionally in a crevice on the side of the astrea's shell) as opposed to on the astrea's flesh.

Nick

 

[Maxx]

Barry, what should I be looking for if I do have a pyramid snail infestation?

If I was able to knock over a 100 of these things off 7 Astrea's, wouldnt I have found some of them on my clams?

Nick

 

[Barry N.]

Barry, what should I be looking for if I do have a pyramid snail infestation?

Look for clear jelly like sacks in the sand or around the clams. These sacks will hatch several dozen sails. Any empty crab or Astrea shells, be sure to remove them from your tank as they will hide in them. six-line wrasse are good but I like the juvenile coris wrasse better.

This is what you are looking for.

 

[NaH2O]

Barry - what type of symptoms will the clam show if the pyram snails are affecting it?

 

[Maxx]

Here is Dr Ron's most recent post regarding these.

Hi Nick,

These pyrams will almost never be on the tissue of the host. They sit on the shells and extend a proboscis to the tissues. The proboscis pierces the tissues and sucks the blood of the host from a distance.

Rissoids will almost never be on another snail.

Also, I pulled 4 of these off of a cerith snail yesterday.

So it looks like I'll be picking up a small 6 line wrasse here soon, in addition to pulling the Astrea's, Cerith's, and Turbo's out nightly and scrubbing them with an old tooth brush. While I'm doing that, I might as well check the clams too.

Nick

 

[The Apprentice]

So it looks like I'll be picking up a small 6 line wrasse here soon

Hey Nick do you have a sand bed? KevinPo has Leopard Wrasse's for this reason And I even got some for my tanks for protecting my Clams They are great Hunters and will park just by the sides of my Clams and look them over Heaven help the Copod walking along oblivious to what is going to happen I have never had any pyramid snail problems but I worry very much about getting them from bring in new clams I have limited my self from only getting them from Kevin & Barry in the past . You may want to try a Leopard as well I have a 6"-7" long one I got from Kevin almost 2 years ago and It lives with a Sixline with no problems in My 150 Gallon Tank..FWIW...Jeff

Here is Dr Ron's most recent post regarding these.



Also, I pulled 4 of these off of a cerith snail yesterday.

So it looks like I'll be picking up a small 6 line wrasse here soon, in addition to pulling the Astrea's, Cerith's, and Turbo's out nightly and scrubbing them with an old tooth brush. While I'm doing that, I might as well check the clams too.

Nick

 

[Maxx]

No I dont, I run BB.

I've never kept a Leopard wrasse, but they are one of the types that are more difficult to keep IMO. I used to work ina large wholesale/retail LFS in Hawaii, (about 1.5 million gallons), and I saw LOTS of fish. I think I saw one or two leopard's eating in the store, over a two year period.

Nick

 

[spongebob lover]

wwouu Nick you got a lot of snails dood !!! .
I think a six line will help you a lot..... they might pick on other fish, but they sure are helpful .

 

[Barry N.]

what type of symptoms will the clam show if the pyram snails are affecting it?

The pyram snail will suck the blood out and the clam will slowly show sign of being sluggish and it will take some time but will certainly die.

 

[Kimo]

I had a major infestation of these on my astreas - nothing ever on my clams. I don't have any astreas anymore however

 

[Llarian]

I've noticed these on my Astreas as well, but I have no snails at all. Am I doomed to always have my astreas sucked dry by these things now?

-Dylan

 

[Maxx]

Thats my assumption Llarian. I havent noticed any of these on my clams, but they are still visible on my snails.

Nick