Looking for ID. What snail is this?

[VibingOctopus]

Found this tiny guy in the bag my Indonesian live rock came in.
No more than 3 or 4 mm in size. Left a bit of a slime trail.

Sorry I won’t be able to make better pictures, I put it into my tank with the live rock and it is so tiny I haven’t found it again.

 

[KrisReef]

I'm bored and sick of laying in bed so I took a brief tour and I came up with a possibility for an id. I use the term ID loosely, as I think their are many hundreds of thousands of marine snails and I didn't do any real search that I can be proud of.

Lets call this a bump with a link

https://images.search.yahoo.com/sea...sics.com/images/assassin-snails-proboscis.jpg

 

[StartingATank]

My guess is some kind of cerith snail

 

[VibingOctopus]

Update: found it last recently so got it out of the tank to get some footage. Sorry for the movement, I am not great with the digital microscope.

It grew quite a bit. With magnification I can see it has a spotted foot and spotted proboscis. It seems to only come out at night after lights out. I don’t know enough about snail proboscis to say if it is unusually shaped.

 

[StartingATank]

Looks like some kind of conch or whelk or nassarias snail

 

[EnterName]

This one might require a specialist. The closest match I have found is Hesperaptyxis luteopictus (painted spindle snail). But it's still very different...

Maybe just a different species, maybe it's a juvenile snail and will change it's appearance quite a bit later on. I don't know, sorry

 

[VibingOctopus]

Thank you both for having a look at this with me! Really appreciate it. Since this one came from indonesian live rock I’m not surprised there could be difficult to ID critters on it
@EnterName That snail looks similar indeed but I can also see a lot of differences. We’ll have to wait for it to grow and see if it changes any I guess. Thanks though!

By now the snail has grown a little bigger and I see it pop up sometimes now because it is becoming harder to miss.

Some additional info:
It seems to be hiding mostly underneath the sand during the day, then in the night when I see it it is mostly on one rock. I tried to drop a mussel/spirulina fish flake nearby it and it fled in terror. I tried a bit of shrimp when I had it in an observation glass but it sped up movement and rushed past it. I don’t know if that means it does not like meat or if it is just scared, but I will continue trying to get more behavioral observations. Meanwhile it is growing well so I’ll post another photo update if I see it in another month or so. We’ll see if I can find out what it is actually eating

 

[VibingOctopus]

My boyfriend found the unidentified snail crawling around this week and pulled it out to make some update pics with his phone for us.

It had grown again. Still avoiding light and only active after lights out. I still don’t know what it eats.

 

[EnterName]

Columbellidae (Dove snail), or (but less likely) Muricidae?

I'm not sure, but these are found from time to time in reef tanks...

 

[13rodo]

Have you noticed it hunting other snails? To me it looks like some sort of whelk. Hard to tell though and I'm not an expert.

 

[VibingOctopus]

Have you noticed it hunting other snails? To me it looks like some sort of whelk. Hard to tell though and I'm not an expert.

No, not at all but the only other snails in this pico tank are 2 trochus histerio which are much larger than this (still) little guy, so I don’t think it would hunt those (yet?).

It is clearly growing so I have no idea what it is actually feeding on if snails are not an option. The only thing I could think of is micro feather dusters? Or do predatory snails eat spionid worms? I do have a bunch of juviniles of those.

I tried dropping a mussle & spirulina fish flake near it once and it fled in terror. I haven’t ever seen it come up for shrimp either… most ID suggestions on this thread seem to be predatory, which is making me curious what it is eating in the tank. And what I could use to test for a feeding response?

 

[13rodo]

No, not at all but the only other snails in this pico tank are 2 trochus histerio which are much larger than this (still) little guy, so I don’t think it would hunt those (yet?).

It is clearly growing so I have no idea what it is actually feeding on if snails are not an option. The only thing I could think of is micro feather dusters? Or do predatory snails eat spionid worms? I do have a bunch of juviniles of those.

I tried dropping a mussle & spirulina fish flake near it once and it fled in terror. I haven’t ever seen it come up for shrimp either… most ID suggestions on this thread seem to be predatory, which is making me curious what it is eating in the tank. And what I could use to test for a feeding response?

Ya like I said I'm no expert, but does it bury itself in the substrate (assuming you have substrate)? Nassarius snails (which look similar to whelks) generally stay buried until you feed, but a whelk doesn't.

 

[VibingOctopus]

Ya like I said I'm no expert, but does it bury itself in the substrate (assuming you have substrate)? Nassarius snails (which look similar to whelks) generally stay buried until you feed, but a whelk doesn't.

Yes, it for sure buries itself into the sand substrate! Interesting, good to know whelks generally don’t do that

 

[13rodo]

Yes, it for sure buries itself into the sand substrate! Interesting, good to know whelks generally don’t do that

Sorry I should clarify... whelks will bury but they also actively will hunt. A nassarius will pretty much stay buried until you feed. So if it only pops out when you feed that can help ID. If it's out hunting it could be a whelk.

 

[13rodo]

I should also say that this is all from my own reading I did while trying to ID a live rock snail. I'm not an expert but just sharing what I learned.

 

[VibingOctopus]

Sorry I should clarify... whelks will bury but they also actively will hunt. A nassarius will pretty much stay buried until you feed. So if it only pops out when you feed that can help ID. If it's out hunting it could be a whelk.

Oh, I see! Thanks for the clarification, that is going to be very helpful info indeed.
I’ll try to do some testing by adding some novel foods next week and see what happens.

I’ll need to make it a point to look into the tank after dark a lot more often as well. The snail is starting to get to a size where it is going to matter real soon if it eats its tankmates.

I should also say that this is all from my own reading I did while trying to ID a live rock snail. I'm not an expert but just sharing what I learned.

Understood. That is certainly more knowledge than I have at the moment, I only know about the behaviours from the snails I own. Behaviour is going to be very important to judge if it will be safe to keep long term so anyone with any notes on that that might help ID is welcome to share.

So thanks for sharing what you’ve learned from research, it will be helpful going forward!