Live Sand Snail Hitchhiker

[overhead]

Live sand arrived today and I added it to my tank. Noticed three of these snails gliding across the sand. From pictures I can find they do not appear to be Whelk snails, but opinions and advise would be appreciated.

 

[Mickle]

Lettered Olive Snail. They act just like nassarius snails except they are more predatory, eating polychaete worms in the sand. I have had success feeding them bits of raw shrimp in the past

 

[overhead]

Lettered Olive Snail. They act just like nassarius snails except they are more predatory, eating polychaete worms in the sand. I have had success feeding them bits of raw shrimp in the past

I did some reading on these and I can't seem to find conclusive information. I will leave them in the tank and see what happens, if they kill snails or anything else it does not seem it will be hard to catch them.

 

[overhead]

Here is another "thing". Assuming it is a lancelet, is that correct?

 

[bubbleguppi]

awww just a cute lettered olive! they do like other snails/crustaceans so just watch him closely. As for the other animal i believe it is a lancelet I would look to see if when it buries in the sand its head stays sticking out.

 

[overhead]

awww just a cute lettered olive! they do like other snails/crustaceans so just watch him closely. As for the other animal i believe it is a lancelet I would look to see if when it buries in the sand its head stays sticking out.

I will watch them. The lancelet like thing came back out when I added more sand and the water clouded it. I have no idea where it went now, the water is still cloudy.

 

[bubbleguppi]

I will watch them. The lancelet like thing came back out when I added more sand and the water clouded it. I have no idea where it went now, the water is still cloudy.

im certain thats what it is, some people enjoy having them in their tank IF they survive. they are prone to bacteria infections.

 

[Gulf Live Rock]

olive snails. they are good guys

 

[overhead]

Wanted to update in case it might help someone in the future. I believe these snails are probably reef safe, but I think they might not be blue leg crab safe. I added three small blue leg hermits. Two of them "disappeared" after a couple off days. That is certainly not unusual, could be hiding or could have just died due to stress. However, the LFS dude told me he had issues with the olive snails in the past and small crustaceans. Today, while on a boring meeting that I really did not need to attend (story of my life) I watched the remaining blue leg working the sand bed. It came withing 6 inches of the olive snail, I could see it's truck/nose whatever sticking out of the sand. The snail retracted it's trunk and started moving under the sand toward the crab. The video below shows the snail arriving just in front of the crab, it's trunk pops out of the sand. Video here is not great resolution for me, but if I go to youtube you can see the trunk pop right out. I stopped the video at that point to stop the snail from killing (maybe) the crab. Just after this the snail popped out of the sand and the crab tried to move away. I used a net to scare the snail back into the sand and the crab quickly continued it's escape. Certainly not proof of anything and I am not asserting anyone is wrong or right, just presenting what I witnessed. Again, you will probably need to go to youtube to improve resolution so you can see the snails trunk pop right out of the sand in front of the crab.