So I added a pencil urchin to my 29 gallon tank about a month ago and noticed right away that one of his spines looked wrong. It was much shorter than the others, red, and bulbous on the end with a hole in its tip that had a white protrusion in the center. I looked into this and couldn’t find anything about anyone that’s seen it before, so I figured he probably just injured a spine that didn’t grow back properly. Then after staring at it one day I realized the white protrusion in the center was shaped exactly like a tiny snail and was moving.
So now I’m worried and thinking it’s some sort of parasitic snail, but since the spines healed around it and I can’t see any way to remove it. Well today the problem solved itself. I have 10 bumble bee snails that until now i didn’t love because they don’t actually eat any algae and they attacked and ate my much larger rabbit snails. One of them climbed ontop of the infected spine and sucked out the parasitic snail before eating it!!! FINALLY these snails have proven their worth!! My only worry is that the snail it ate laid eggs inside the spine and now more will emerge.
I did some more research and found these snails are called Sabinella troglodytes and they only parasitize pencil urchin spines. They cause the spines to form bulbous homes around the snail and they even mate, reproduce, etc inside the spine. In the attached photos u can see the bulbous infected spine after the snail was removed and in tiny white snail that the Bumble Bee snail pulled out and was eating.
Hopefully this problem is over. Has anyone else dealt with this before?
So now I’m worried and thinking it’s some sort of parasitic snail, but since the spines healed around it and I can’t see any way to remove it. Well today the problem solved itself. I have 10 bumble bee snails that until now i didn’t love because they don’t actually eat any algae and they attacked and ate my much larger rabbit snails. One of them climbed ontop of the infected spine and sucked out the parasitic snail before eating it!!! FINALLY these snails have proven their worth!! My only worry is that the snail it ate laid eggs inside the spine and now more will emerge.
I did some more research and found these snails are called Sabinella troglodytes and they only parasitize pencil urchin spines. They cause the spines to form bulbous homes around the snail and they even mate, reproduce, etc inside the spine. In the attached photos u can see the bulbous infected spine after the snail was removed and in tiny white snail that the Bumble Bee snail pulled out and was eating.
Hopefully this problem is over. Has anyone else dealt with this before?
