Good or Bad?

[ansonluna]

I started noticing these little snails on my astreas. What should I do about them? And are they good or bad?

[Reef69]

Ooooh, bad..arent those the clam pyramid snails??..If you have any clams, I'd get as many of them out as possible..

[ansonluna]

CRAP, I have been doing research with Aquatic Warehouse and it appears they are a type of the pyramid snails. There are none on my clam, but all over the astreas. Seems the only way to get rid of them is my sixline and scrubbin'em down.

[Reef69]

Yeah..That sucks man..hope you get rid of them.

[Ross]

Do they survive anywhere but the astrea snails? Are they in the live rock?

[cpreefguy]

Those are not bad, theyre HORRIBLE!!! Those drill into your clam shell and lay the eggs inside. When the eggs hatch the feed off of the clam. Good luck treating. Look for the as much as possible and pick them off when you see them.

[ansonluna]

I cleaned all my astreas. i scrubed their shells to get any eggs they may have layed. I saw a few on my turbos and some of the other snails, but not as much as on the astreas. I recently bought two fighting conchs and they are MIA, so i am assuming those little bastards took them out. i scrubbed my clam too, but there were not any on it. from what i was reading, there is possibly a morph of those pyramids that attack specifically astreas. weird!!

[ansonluna]

And they are hitch-hickers, so they could have come in on other snails. my tank has been set up for almost a year and i just recently noticed them.....and i watch my tank like a hawk....except when the ich went buck wild and killed most of my fish.....but i was taking finals to graduate. so now that i don't have to pay tuition...but i have to buy all new fish. IT NEVER ENDS!!!!

[Ross]

Does anyone if these things can survive without snails in the tank? Can they live in the live rock or what?

[JimD]

Without a live host, they wont survive. Truely parasitic. Fortunately, theyre fairly managable. Best way is to take the affected animal out of the tank and run warm fresh water over it while using a toothbrush to remove the snails.

[bigdscobra]

Dam dude you have not had good luck this last couple of weeks. Dont give up!! I think there is a couple versions of these little suckers because I have some in my fuge and they have been in their forever. They have not moved from that tank and don't mess with the clams, I have nassarius snails with them but they dont attack them like yours are. Wish there was more info on the different types.

[Ross]

Thanks alot Jim.

[satx-94integraLS]

i could have sworn someone recently said freshwater dipping is no bueno.. nice info though, something to look out for.

[Ross]

sorry for the rude comment

[SBreef]

If you do not any anything constuctive to say, then KEEP IT TO YOURSELF!!!!
This is suppose to be a club that people learn from. And not to be jumped on. So, if someone does ask a stupid question, lead them to the answer, instead of making fun of them!!
I know that we all may not like each other, so lets keep it civil!!

[Instar]

These will also congregate and hide in the little white encrusting sponges that live on the side of clams or other bivalves. Best bet to keep them from getting away unnoticed is to do what JimD said. Since this one appears to be a species of pyrmidella that bothers astreas, you probably have most of them by cleaning the snails. Keep a close watch so none get away. I've kept them for weeks without a food source in a small dish so food or not, they could come back to haunt you when least expected. Its possible some eggs got away from the host, so watch in case these hatch later. They will be very tiny and hard to see if that happens. If you have the correct fish (natural predator) in there for this pest, it will eat any that do hatch. Since they can live in a fuge, could be another species or may exist on something other than the preferred host when times are hard, its better to keep them secured in an area where they can't harm anything if you do keep them.

[scuba_steveo]

I have had them but they have never seemed to be an issue. I clean them off by water and toothbrush. I have never seen any on my clam. I do not believe that they are the species that attack clams but I keep on the safe side by removing the ones I see. I tried two times to add a six line but my other fish will not let one live. :(

[ansonluna]

Steve I have a sixline, and the dude is about to explode because he is so FAT. Some of the articles I was reading said there are other fish that are natural preditors of these bad boys. So I am going to try to add another TERMINATOR, since it is my understanding that you can't have two sixlines, or any other kind of line with a sixline.

[ansonluna]

This is from Live Aquaria:

Natural predators of Pyramid snails include several species of wrasse within the genus of Halichoeres and Pseudocheilinus. A few of the more popular species that are reportedly very efficient at controlling these snails are; Six and Eight Lined Wrasse (P. hexataenia and P. octotaenia), and the Green Wrasse (H. chloropterus).

also read the banana wrasse is a good one.

[scuba_steveo]

Another problem I have the wrasse is that I have an open top system and they are jumpers.

[Instar]

There are a number of pest little snails like this. One of them bores into tubastrea corals, anther into hammers and so on. There is a tiny little snail like this that has a candy cane stripe that follows the coil of the shell. I let those stay in my tanks as they look like they are eating algae and there are several species of snails with coiled shells like this that are harmless. But, this one riding on the edge of the snail's shell looks dubious. It may just be getting debri kicked loose or poop from those snails, but, it rides like a group parasite from the look of the pictures. Being on the safe side is much better in this case because once inside a clam, its in there, out of site, doing its thing and you never know why the clam (or a coral) didn't fare well.

The Heliocoeres (yellow and green) and other wrasses may tend to be jumpers but the six lines don't. I've had a mated pair for years in an open top and they stick mostly to low rocky areas except during the open water spawning and courtship displays in the evening.