need a ID for this

[StirCrazy]

well I was checking out the tank and I noticed my astra snails had little white bumps on them so with further investagation I have descovered they are little snails.. now they are only on the astra snails not the certh , or any other types.. also they are not on the several boaring clams I have in my tank.. or even the clam that is hitching a ride on an snail.

here is a pic, could thease be baby snails of a good kind? or would the be the nasty ones..



http://members.shaw.ca/crystalK/babysnails.jpg

Steve

[Delphinus]

They sure do look to me like pyramid snails (the clam eaters) .... (I thought they also went on snails occasionally).

I'd be asking this question in Dr. Ron's forum if you haven't done so already.

Good luck!

[Troy F]

I agree with Tony, but if you want to be sure ask Ron. He'll ask for a better pic though. You need to show a clear picture of the opening.

[EmilyB]

Are they hard or soft Steve?

I had some baby snails that looked like pyramid snails but they were not, the shells were soft when this pic was taken and they were already bigger than pyramid snails. I also had my clam back then and these guys were no where near it.

http://members.shaw.ca/bhadford1/SnailorWhat.JPG

[pocilipora]

I had these snails not to long ago. The Astreas became irritated by them and would try to shake them off by quickly giving themselves a twist. If left unchecked the do kill your snails, as mine did. Im not sure if they are the pyramid snails but they sure look like them. A way to get rid of them for sure is by manual removal every day(and they will be there every day) and employ a wrass of some sort. Six lines love them but I chose a Christmas wrass. Six line may be better as it stays small and can get into smaller spaces.
You probably have them on your rock work aswell, just have to look hard because the hide.

[Delphinus]

There are (apparently) some species of cerith snails that look exactly like pyramid snails from the top. But, like other ceriths are herbivores so you'd find them on the sand and on the rock and stuff like that -- but not the clam or on other snails. From what I understand anyways.

Even if they're not pyramids in this case, the fact that they are glommed onto the astrea like that, would be a cause for concern for me. They're not there to keep the astrea company ....

[Aquattro]

Have to agree with Tony. Just by where they are on the astrea, I'd say they're up to no good.

[StirCrazy]

Well it seams that they are a bad snail and Dr. Ron would like me to colect a bunch and mail them to him for something he is working on.

he also said this in a different post on them

"Any given species is likely to have only one host or at best only a few species of hosts. So those that suck the blood of snails, will not likely attack clams. "

so looks like I will be mailingout some snails next week.


Steve