Snail Question

[rocket]

Hello, this is my first post here, but I’ve been reading threads for a while. Nice place you’ve got here!
I have a snail, not sure on the kind, but it stays on/in the sand, the shell is thinner and pointy and is black with small white spots all over it. Anyway, the other night I noticed "strings" floating around the tank, they looked like spider webs. They were coming from the snail, long silky looking strings. The snail buried itself in the sand for about a week and a half prior to this. I tried to get a picture but they didn’t turn out. Digital cameras drive me nuts! I’m a transparency kind of guy.
I tried searching the forums for something like this but I was unable to find anything. Maybe someone could tell me how to search a phrase i.e. snail+web?? And not get single words.
Anyway, thanks for the help!
Nathan

 

[burning2nd]

the snail sounds like a cerith snail 2 me, (but thats just a guess with out a pic)

there are also tube worms (not sure of exsact name) but when i stirr the tank up the tube worms relese the spider web looking stuff to catch the stuff flying around (i guess)
since there is a lot of guessing going on here, ill contiune to guess, in assumeing that your seeing the spider webs from the tube works and your ceirth snails in the sand.

my do the same thing tho,

spider webs and snails in sand

 

[Krish]

Welcome to RF!! Hope you enjoy your time here! Does your snail look like this, if so, you're good. It was ID'd as a cerith snail when I posted another pic before

 

[rocket]

That’s the right shape, but the shell is fairly smooth. The "web strings" were definitely coming from the snail. I could see them coming out of the shell. This is a fairly new tank, about 2.5 months, so I don’t have any tube worms yet.
Thanks,
Nathan

 

[burning2nd]

theres a cierth snail. f in things up in my sump look like that?

 

[rocket]

yup that looks like it!

 

[Krish]

Did the stringy thing look like this? This is a cerith snail as well. Not mine though

http://www.reef-aquarium.net/resources/invertebrates/snails/cerith.jpg

 

[rocket]

Krish,
It really didn’t look that thick or bubbly. It was just a thin string with what looked like grains of sand stuck to the string every so often.
So what was the stuff coming from that snail in the picture you posted?

 

[Krish]

Not sure...I think eggs. Nikki (NaH20) is great with ID's, link etc so hopefully she will chime in in the morning when she logs on. I'm sure she will have tons of links that would help

 

[ronj]

i was just about to say eggs..i just siphoned some off the bottom of one of my tanks about an hour ago..it is just a string of eggs about 2-3" long..i'm not sure if that is what you have , but i have the same snails as you..

 

[NaH2O]

The link Krish posted was a cerith laying eggs. Here is another image:

Does the snail's shell look like it has a little tube on it somewhere? I wonder if perhaps there is a hitchhiking vermetid snail on the cerith snail's shell, and you were noticing its mucus net.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

In case Nikki's theory is correct, here is a link with good info on vermetids
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rs/index.php

 

[rocket]

Thanks for the help! I havent noticed any "tubes" on the snails shell. It must have been eggs I guess. The strings it released made it all the way around the tank (75g), there were alot! 2' long.