Snail explosion

[SuperXdude]

I haven't checked out my tank after dark for awhile, but after breaking out the red lense flashlight, I saw close to 100 + baby snails crawling all over the rocks.

I'll get some pix of some other stuff I am not sure WTF they are. One was a clear worm stretching across the top of a rock...any ideas?

Other looked like a hard shelled catepillar....3/4 inch long, red colored.

Will post pix when I can

SuperX

[SaltyJim]

The long shelled caterpiller looking thing may be a chiton. Pics will definitely help determine.

The clear worm stretching across the rock, about how big around would you say it was? Could be something like I found in my tank boring holes in my LR. I think it is harmless, but I can't say for sure. Mine was about 1/8" in diameter.

Jim

[SaltyJim]

Oh, and what about the shells on the snails, what shape are they?

[SuperXdude]

Smails look like turbos. Too small to be sure. Others are white colored cerith shaped.

Chiton was the word I was looking for earlier. Lemme go snap some pix of these things.


SuperX

[alexwolf]

white colored cerith shaped sound like pyramid snails, no bueno on those.

[Ram_Puppy]

if their tiny, without pics we peobably shouldn't s care him to death with pyramids! ;) not just yet... they could be baby cerith! (I know... huge stretch!) I have had trochus breed in my tank, and I have a few chitons too, though, they don't look like cateripillars, my chitons look like a trochus or astrea that doesn't move very much, and they have a lacy halo of flesh around the bottom, excellent algae cleaners.

[SuperXdude]

Chitons good?
Pyramids bad?

Scare me....go ahead.


SuperX

[Instar]

White colored, cerith (pointed cone shaped) and about 3 to 5 mm long could easily be pyramidellae snails. You need a positive id on them before you kill a bunch of baby cerith snails. They are very hard to tell apart. If they are the pyramids, they bore into things such as tubastrea (lps stoneys and that can include torches, frogspawn, etc.) and clams, and kill them for food. They love clams!
That caterpillar thing sounds like a bristle worm and the rest other detrivore worms too. They're out cleaning up the place as are the snails.

If you can capture a bunch of them, I can swing by or meet you somewhere tomorrow and id them for you. Get a good sampling and look close at the foot. It could be both kinds or even another kind of snail. There are several snails that look like the pyramids that are not. Don't get bit by them. There is one kind that is cone shaped that injects poison with a probiscus into its unsuspecting victims.

Chitons ok, unless they are nested in a poccilopora colony and then they may eat the growing tips off the coral as they graze across the top. That usually doesn't happen, but it can. Chitons normally live on and in a rock making little channels across it for their paths or burrow into the sand along a rock or on the glass. They eat algae for the most part.

There are worms that eat algae and others that eat sponges, some that eat rocks (those are boring) but most eat detritus and left over food.

Really, the above is true. Are you scared yet? Focus on the snails and let me know about meeting you for an id.

[SuperXdude]

I know the worm thing is not a bristleworm. I've got plenty of those.

Take your average earthworm, make it clearish colored, and give it a whitish band in the middle.

I'll be working at the Airshow tomorrow, 342 TRS Heavy Weapons display from 7am-12pm.

Look for Sgt Veeder. I'll be hanging out.

[Instar]

Sent you a pm.