Snail eating hitchhiker nem/coral?

[TeeJay87]

Can you please help identify the thing with the clear/white tentacles? These guys hitchhiked with my TBS live rock. It’s my first tank, and I assumed they were some kind of coral. Now I’m wondering if they are some kind of anemone. I was never really concerned with them until I saw one trying to snack on one of my remaining snails (also a hitchhiker on the rock).

If you know what the snail is, please let me know. It has a red color body which looks really cool and I believe it has a trunk as well. So maybe some type of nassarius.

Please excuse the GHA; its a work in progress. You should have seen it a couple months ago as it’s quite a bit better now believe it or not.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I'm not a coral expert, but I'm pretty sure the potential anemones are actually a Phyllangia sp. coral, possibly Phyllangia americana.

The snail is likely a young horse conch - these are actually massive, predatory snails (they're really cool, but they will eat your other snails, clams, etc. - basically any gastropods would be in danger). The red foot is an incredibly distinctive feature, and the only other snails I know of from Florida with red feet (Peristernia spp.) are also predatory (though these guys are much smaller than horse conchs). So, even if the snails are not horse conchs (which they most likely are), you still probably wouldn't want them in your tank. They could make a really interesting addition to a sump or a predatory snail tank dedicated to keeping them though.

Edit: I meant to say mollusks, not gastropods (though gastropods are a kind of mollusk).

 

[TeeJay87]

I'm not a coral expert, but I'm pretty sure the potential anemones are actually a Phyllangia sp. coral, possibly Phyllangia americana.

The snail is likely a young horse conch - these are actually massive, predatory snails (they're really cool, but they will eat your other snails, clams, etc. - basically any gastropods would be in danger). The red foot is an incredibly distinctive feature, and the only other snails I know of from Florida with red feet (Peristernia spp.) are also predatory (though these guys are much smaller than horse conchs). So, even if the snails are not horse conchs (which they most likely are), you still probably wouldn't want them in your tank. They could make a really interesting addition to a sump or a predatory snail tank dedicated to keeping them though.

Edit: I meant to say mollusks, not gastropods (though gastropods are a kind of mollusk).

Thanks for the quick and thorough reply! I'm amazed that there are people out there with this kind of knowledge and they take the time to share it.

So instead of the coral eating the snail, I wonder if this snail was trying to snack on the coral or some food the coral got ahold of. Crazy this thing could get up to 2 foot. I might let it roam the tank for a bit (he's been in there a year and is still pretty small), and hopefully I can re-home it before it gets big enough to become a nuisance.

 

[ReeferHD]

do you have a sump? i have a spiny whelk in mine and he seems really happy in there, im going to eventually put him in a FOWLR tank where he cant kill anything.

 

[TeeJay87]

do you have a sump? i have a spiny whelk in mine and he seems really happy in there, im going to eventually put him in a FOWLR tank where he cant kill anything.

No sump, but I did just start quarantining some snails and an urchin. I threw him in there For now. He is like 1/6 the size of any other snail so I’m not worried about him hurting the other snails, but maybe I should be.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Can you please help identify the thing with the clear/white tentacles? These guys hitchhiked with my TBS live rock. It’s my first tank, and I assumed they were some kind of coral. Now I’m wondering if they are some kind of anemone. I was never really concerned with them until I saw one trying to snack on one of my remaining snails (also a hitchhiker on the rock).

If you know what the snail is, please let me know. It has a red color body which looks really cool and I believe it has a trunk as well. So maybe some type of nassarius.

Please excuse the GHA; its a work in progress. You should have seen it a couple months ago as it’s quite a bit better now believe it or not.

Curlique anemones or anthezoa known as Phyllangia . Curliques dont have that branch structure so likely not