Category Archives: snails

Watch out for Pyramid Snails!

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  Pictured above on the dime is a couple of pyram snails or pyramid snails.  These cute little fellas can cause a whole heck of a problem in your reef tank if you keep clams, starfish and larger snails such as astrea snails.  There are different types of pyramid snails the ones shown on the dime are the ones that feed on tridacna clams.

 The pyramid snail or pyramidellids feed at night by piercing there hosts flesh with there proboscis. when feeding on clams the snails will Peirce the clam’s mantle and suck out its zooxanthellae and fluids.  When spotted on a starfish the snails will be feeding near the bottom of the starfish near its feet and around its mouth. 

  The best way to keep your tank clean of these unwanted marine reef snails is to quarenteen your new arrivals and make sure to check out each specimen top and bottom.  Remove each snail with a brush or tweezers. 

  I personally lost a blue linkia starfish and a couple of astrea snails to pyram snails.  I knew the snails where one the starfish but i never thought anything of it at the time until my starfish started to die.  So verse yourself well with certain parasites and keep your reef inhabitants as healthy as possible. 

My next blog will be about sundial snails the silent zoa killer!

Black saltwater snails In the marine reef aquarium

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  Many people are used to seeing grey/silver snails in the marine reef aquarium but are not used to seeing black saltwater snails in there tanks.  Reef aquariums with live rock can sometimes have a whole slew of hitchhikers in them. Sometimes they are not seen for the first few weeks but they eventually come out, especially at night. 

  There can be hundreds if not thousands of different types of snails and for the casual reef keeper they can be very difficult to identify.  The important part about identifying a saltwater snail is to look at its shell shape, its foot and its proboscis. Aside from the markings on the shell, the color of a snails shell has little impact on what type of snail it is. A couple of black saltwater snails that come to mind are of the nerite and stomalleta species. You can find more about snails on the right side of this page entitled “Beneficial reef aquarium snails”.