Are these snails reef safe?

[SIMS]

Hi Guys,

Went to mission rocks today, it was high tide so did not get to see/collect much but I did pick up some interesting looking snails....

any one got some id's for them?

are they reef safe?

 

[viper357]

The ones in pic 2 will do nothing but climb out of your tank

 

[SIMS]

The ones in pic 2 will do nothing but climb out of your tank

shit that's the ones I really liked... oh well I'll have to return then then....

 

[KevinW]

Hi Sims, could I suggest that you put something next to the snails when you photograph them to give an indication of their size. Viper is correct about the one in photo 2 - these live in the upper reaches and above of the high tide level so they will not stay in your tank. Where did you collect the one in the last photo? Was it in sand?

 

[SIMS]

Ok I will do so next time but they are all very very small maybe about 5mm to 10mm or so.... yip think it was collected in the sand - Y?

 

[KevinW]

It looks like what is commonly called a plough snail (Bullia sp.). These live in the swash zone and bury themselves by ploughing back into the sand. They are essentailly the vultures of the swash zone and eat pretty much anything that they find from jelly fish to dead fish.

 

[phat]

so kevin would they work in a dsb?

 

[KevinW]

They like lots of water movement so I am not too sure how they would do in a low flow sceanrio such as a DSB. I would also be concerned that they would keep disturbing the surface sediments (probably top 2 to 3cms) of the DSB which is also not too great an idea.

 

[phat]

i think top 2-3 cm is cool if dsb is 15cm deep

 

[SIMS]

My DSB is 20cm +

 

[palmerc]

so kevin would they work in a dsb?

I collected some of these before - They did not do very well in my tank and I had to give them away. They need a very fine sand as well, could not dig themselves into an aragonite DSB.