When not extended, the worm was only about 4.5" and .25" in width. When going for the snail, it extended to about 7", but I'm sure I saw only about half of its body.

Alan,

Don't know if we caught the culprit :confused: We weren't looking at any other part of the tank other than where the worm was. But on the other side of the cave near the back glass, where we have found a few other dead snails, I found another dead margarita this morning :frown: :cry: Don't know if that snail was there last night before we caught the worm, or if it was killed (or died on its own) sometime later in the night. So, I think we still have a bit of a mystery on our hands :confused:

Beverly, when things die, snails, clams, ect. or rather are dieing, they release chemicals that will alert other "cleaning critters" like worms, that they are doing so. this will bring out worms carnivorous snails ect to start munching on the dieing critter. I don't feel that the size of that bristle worm is you culprit, I could be wrong but it is my gut instinct.

You mentioned that the snail was a Margareta snail... have all the dead snails Margareta's or the majority of them? from personal experience I find the life of Margareta snails are very short in our tanks with the odd exception. this is mostly because they are not a tropical water snail and our tank temps are actually to high for them so they seem to die off rather fast. The slime worm Brad was talking about and that I think I have seen a few times in my tank was stretched through a mucus tunnel on the sand over a distance of 14" and he still had the majority of his body in the rock from what I could tell.

So you might have had a baby one that is just starting to be able to get snails, or you could just have a opportunistic feeder getting a meal from a dieing snail.

Steve

Glad to hear you finally caught that huge bristle worm...
but,
As far as I know Bristle Worms don't click.
makes me think something is still lurking in the shadows and dark tunnels of your rock... http://www.muiscontrols.com/ryan/icon20.gif

It is a conch for sure. Allen at J&L sold it to me for 2 bucks. It was Darren's(DJ88) last day working there. Of course nobody there knew anything about it. It has a shell like a queen but it's snout is pointed. Now I know that's for peeling snails off the glass or rocks :rolleyes: . I will keep feeding it as it's appetite is not huge.

Not yet but maybe soon.

Congrats on your catch Bev. At least I know what is killing my snails. I hate mysteries.

Steve,

Bristleworms, large and small, are oppportunistic scavenger feeders, as far as I have always understood. I agree that I may have only caught the animal that was "cleaning up" after the kill, and it sort of bothers me that I may have caught and killed an animal that might have be beneficial to my tank overall :confused: I wonder, though, why the killer would have killed the snail then left it only half eaten and out in the open in the cave. I would have imagined a mantis would have dragged the snail back to its liar. But the worm wouldn't have to, it could just partially come out of its hole to kill then feed.

Looking at the snails that have been found dead, yes, most of them have been margaritas. However, I have margaritas in my three tanks, all bought at the same time from the same lfs, and tank temps for all three are at 78-79F. The other two tanks have not experienced any margarita deaths, so I have to assume something particular to the 120g death tank is doing in the snails and the bivalve.

After reading your post, I took a look at the activity levels of the snails in the 120g, both margaritas and astreas. The margaritas are chowing down like there's no tomorrow on the algae on the glass. They are definitely more active than the astreas in that tank, which has always been the case when I've had both astreas and margaritas in the past. As well, I have never had a successive die off of margaritas in the years I've kept them in my tanks as I am having now.

So, really, I'm hoping the worm we caught last might was the killer. If not, I don't know how long it will before we discover what animal, if any, is doing in our snails :sad: I suppose only time and vigilance will tell if the b-worm was the culprit after all, or if something else is killing them, if we ever find out what the cause of their deaths is :confused:

I hope you did catch your killer, if there is one, but I have to say, I doubt it.

I had a bristleworm that was about a foot long and I don't think he was ever a snail killer (I didn't have real issues with SSDS (Sudden Snail Death Syndrome)). He did consume another organism once that was exactly his size, in its entirety. I watched him swallow it, it was like a snake eating a rat. Probably the most disgusting thing that I ever witnessed in my tank.

Bev, are all these snails that you're finding dead carcasses or empty shells? Unless the snail is consumed then I doubt you have any killer at all.

The one we found last night, along with the worm, and the one I found this morning were carcasses. The others were picked clean as far into the shell that I could see. However, the ones that were picked clean still had a "dead" smell to them when removed from the tank, so there must have been some tissue way back in the shells that I couldn't see.

I was going to say Conch as well I have 2 in my tank and they have eatten all my snails. I think I am going to cach the conches and move them to my fuge so I can get more snails

What kind of Conch :question: I have a Fighting Conch that has no interest in snails at all. BTW he is over 2.5 inches long. :eek: