Questions about Collonista snails

[Smithrz]

Hey folks, I've had (estimnated) 500ish of these Collinista or Mini-Trochus snails in my system for about 3 months (that's what ChatGPT told me they were anyway). I figured they were baby Trochus snails as I had a couple of large trchus spawn in the tank about 6 months ago. But then, they've been here for months and aren't growing any larger than about 3-4mm. However, I also spotted a baby Trochus snail recently, about 1cm in size which I definitely never bought. During the day, I see them at the surface and in the overflow, but at night they completely swarm my tanks, they're all over the glass and all rock work, so there's definitely hundreds, if not nearly 1,000 of them.

So my question is, when Trochus snails spawn, is there a chance it creates these Collinista snails AND actual Trochus snail babies? Also, any advice or something I should be aware of with these little guys? I don't think they're a problem? my system is currently thriving in terms of coral health (it's about 19 months old - touch wood).

Thanks!

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

Those look like collonista snails to me. The only issue that I am aware of with them is that they might clog pumps, but I haven't run into that issue yet. All it takes is a few hitchhiker snails to create hundreds, so no, these don't come from trochus snails. If you see eggs on the glass that have things on it that jiggle/blow around in the flow, those are the collonistas eggs.