Please help! Does my conch have some sort of parasite?

[Gatchi13]

Tldr: shell damage on wild-caught conch seems to be getting worse, some wormy things have been spotted. See media below.

The full story:
Never kept an aquarium before. Found this guy while wading in Galveston Bay about 4 weeks ago and fell in love, so I took him home and began my research. Pretty sure he is a Florida Crown Conch. I went out and got him a little 3-gallon tank with built in overflow filter, which seems like plenty for him. I scooped up some beach sand and initially used ocean water, but after learning more I have moved to Instant Ocean salt in some RO water from the grocery store. I removed the filter and put most of a bottle of Dr. Tim's marine bacteria in there, let it go for a few days before I put the filter back in. Currently using what was supposed to be a round filter shoved into the filter hole, seems to work well. I also bought a bag of filter stones and put them in the overflow (before adding the Dr. Tims). I feed him a piece of grocery store oyster about every other day (more than that and he'll ignore it for a while, don't want it sitting in there for too long), he loves it. I have tried some other foods that he just doesn't seem to like as much. He usually leaves a bunch of scraps on the sand that I then have to pick out, so about a week ago the parameters were stable enough that I decided to get two peppermint shrimp to help clean up. I had heard that they like relatively low flow as well so thought this would be okay for them. Considering the size of the tank I think the 2 shrimp + snail is enough. I found a bunch of cool red rocks on the ground (I think they migh tbe pieces of patio masonry or something) that I washed well and put in there for the shrimp to enjoy (they love the caves I made). At the same time I also purchased some chaetomorph, and my friend gifted me a mangrove sapling that seems to be doing well.

The parasites: at the time of aquirement, Michelin (my Conch) had some spots and channels like you see in the photos, but in the past week there seems to be much more of them. I am pretty worried. You could see some wormy things wriggling around on his shell in the video, those also seem to have been around since the beginning, I didn't think much of them early on I'll admit, but am now worried. Please help! Are they really parasites? Is something eating his shell? What can I do about it?

Thanks y'all!

 

[Elira_6301]

Tldr: shell damage on wild-caught conch seems to be getting worse, some wormy things have been spotted. See media below.

The full story:
Never kept an aquarium before. Found this guy while wading in Galveston Bay about 4 weeks ago and fell in love, so I took him home and began my research. Pretty sure he is a Florida Crown Conch. I went out and got him a little 3-gallon tank with built in overflow filter, which seems like plenty for him. I scooped up some beach sand and initially used ocean water, but after learning more I have moved to Instant Ocean salt in some RO water from the grocery store. I removed the filter and put most of a bottle of Dr. Tim's marine bacteria in there, let it go for a few days before I put the filter back in. Currently using what was supposed to be a round filter shoved into the filter hole, seems to work well. I also bought a bag of filter stones and put them in the overflow (before adding the Dr. Tims). I feed him a piece of grocery store oyster about every other day (more than that and he'll ignore it for a while, don't want it sitting in there for too long), he loves it. I have tried some other foods that he just doesn't seem to like as much. He usually leaves a bunch of scraps on the sand that I then have to pick out, so about a week ago the parameters were stable enough that I decided to get two peppermint shrimp to help clean up. I had heard that they like relatively low flow as well so thought this would be okay for them. Considering the size of the tank I think the 2 shrimp + snail is enough. I found a bunch of cool red rocks on the ground (I think they migh tbe pieces of patio masonry or something) that I washed well and put in there for the shrimp to enjoy (they love the caves I made). At the same time I also purchased some chaetomorph, and my friend gifted me a mangrove sapling that seems to be doing well.

The parasites: at the time of aquirement, Michelin (my Conch) had some spots and channels like you see in the photos, but in the past week there seems to be much more of them. I am pretty worried. You could see some wormy things wriggling around on his shell in the video, those also seem to have been around since the beginning, I didn't think much of them early on I'll admit, but am now worried. Please help! Are they really parasites? Is something eating his shell? What can I do about it?

Thanks y'all!

Im thinking acorn barnacle.

 

[Gatchi13]

Im thinking acorn barnacle.

Thank you! That looks like it. Are they harmful to the conch?

 

[twentyleagues]

Thank you! That looks like it. Are they harmful to the conch?

While the barnacles are not harmful in any direct way they can take over an "area" creating issues for the "area". You really probably have nothing to worry about here. Typically harmless filter feeder. As for the erosion on the shell that is not from the barnacles and may or may not fill in as the conch grows. As for the barnacles they will not probably survive to grow out of proportion, they require lots of particulate foods that most tanks dont have. Keep an eye on alk, calc, and mag as the conch needs these to grow for its shell. If you do normal 10% weekly water changes you shouldn't need to worry too much on these parameters. Conches feed on film algaes and diatoms this may be a challenge in that tank. I had a "fighting" conch that would go after algae wafers you may try that once a week or so.

 

[Gatchi13]

While the barnacles are not harmful in any direct way they can take over an "area" creating issues for the "area". You really probably have nothing to worry about here. Typically harmless filter feeder. As for the erosion on the shell that is not from the barnacles and may or may not fill in as the conch grows. As for the barnacles they will not probably survive to grow out of proportion, they require lots of particulate foods that most tanks dont have. Keep an eye on alk, calc, and mag as the conch needs these to grow for its shell. If you do normal 10% weekly water changes you shouldn't need to worry too much on these parameters. Conches feed on film algaes and diatoms this may be a challenge in that tank. I had a "fighting" conch that would go after algae wafers you may try that once a week or so.

Gotcha, thanks! I don't currently have any way to test calc or mag, but I do the water changes so should be alright I guess. This is a Crown conch, melongena corona, so it is carnivorous. I tried algae wafers and sinking crab pellets at first but he wasn't interested. After reading a research paper I got some grocery store oysters, cut 'em into chunks, froze 'em, and drop one in there every other day. He loves it.

 

[twentyleagues]

Gotcha, thanks! I don't currently have any way to test calc or mag, but I do the water changes so should be alright I guess. This is a Crown conch, melongena corona, so it is carnivorous. I tried algae wafers and sinking crab pellets at first but he wasn't interested. After reading a research paper I got some grocery store oysters, cut 'em into chunks, froze 'em, and drop one in there every other day. He loves it.

I was going to add some are carnivorous but I have very little knowledge on that as I keep a reef and dont want them there lol. That should make it much easier to keep though.

 

[Gatchi13]

I was going to add some are carnivorous but I have very little knowledge on that as I keep a reef and dont want them there lol. That should make it much easier to keep though.

Understandable. Yeah, it's definitely nice having something I can feed him directly like that. I really want to try my hand at a reef as well, but I've heard its best to let your tank run for like a year before trying to add any coral, and I really don't know enough yet, I think. Thanks for your help!

 

[twentyleagues]

Understandable. Yeah, it's definitely nice having something I can feed him directly like that. I really want to try my hand at a reef as well, but I've heard its best to let your tank run for like a year before trying to add any coral, and I really don't know enough yet, I think. Thanks for your help!

Definitely keep doing research. There are many ways of reefing and many schools of thought. There are ways of having corals with in the first week of a tank it all depends on your knowledge and ability. Start testing your parameters in this tank, 1st because you should know for the conches health and 2nd it will get you ready for a reef. Alk, calcium, nitrate, and phosphate are the common tests needed. alk, nitrate and phosphate use hannah tests because they are easy to read and fairly accurate salifert or red sea for calcium because they are accurate and hannahs test is a pain.