Snail ID

[Grimli]

I had a couple of these snails show up a couple months ago at the size of maybe half of a grain of rice. Now there are at least a dozen, ranging from 1/8” to 1” in size. I assume they slipped past me on a coral frag I got from sbb that was absolutely covered in hitchhikers.

 

[kichimark]

Looks like a strombus snail or known as a columbellid from what I know. I use to have those in my old tank before I sold them. Great part of the cleaning crew. Miss them.

 

[tbrown]

The snout looks mottled so I'm leaning towards a whelk. They can be predatory. Question: do they go under the sand or stay more on the rocks?

 

[Grimli]

The snout looks mottled so I'm leaning towards a whelk. They can be predatory. Question: do they go under the sand or stay more on the rocks?

They stay above the sand bed and particularly like to hang out on my macro algae. I can’t tell if they’re eating it or not though.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I had a couple of these snails show up a couple months ago at the size of maybe half of a grain of rice. Now there are at least a dozen, ranging from 1/8” to 1” in size. I assume they slipped past me on a coral frag I got from sbb that was absolutely covered in hitchhikers.

Euplica scripta - it technically is a kind of whelk, just one of the few good ones:

Yeah, this is probably the Dotted/Lettered Dove Snail, Euplica scripta - it's a keeper if so:

Look up Euplica scripta (it has a lot of color variations, so look at a bunch of different images to compare with) and see if that seems to be a match.

Interesting, and I stand corrected here - Euplica scripta is apparently primarily a sea grass-epiphytic algae-eater;* so it feeds primarily on algae that grows on sea grass; interestingly, this makes them (and a few other common Columbellids) quite different dietarily than the vast majority of their relatives.**

Cool!

*Source:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X21002727

**Source:

Molecular phylogeny of Columbellidae (Gastropoda: Neogastropoda) - PMC

The neogastropod family Columbellidae is a highly successful group of small, primarily epibenthic marine snails distributed worldwide and most abundant in the tropics. The great diversity of the group makes them attractive for studying evolutionary ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[Grimli]

I had a couple of these snails show up a couple months ago at the size of maybe half of a grain of rice. Now there are at least a dozen, ranging from 1/8” to 1” in size. I assume they slipped past me on a coral frag I got from sbb that was absolutely covered in hitchhikers.

Euplica scripta - it technically is a kind of whelk, just one of the few good ones:

Yeah, this is probably the Dotted/Lettered Dove Snail, Euplica scripta - it's a keeper if so:

Look up Euplica scripta (it has a lot of color variations, so look at a bunch of different images to compare with) and see if that seems to be a match.

Interesting, and I stand corrected here - Euplica scripta is apparently primarily a sea grass-epiphytic algae-eater;* so it feeds primarily on algae that grows on sea grass; interestingly, this makes them (and a few other common Columbellids) quite different dietarily than the vast majority of their relatives.**

Cool!

*Source:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X21002727

**Source:

Molecular phylogeny of Columbellidae (Gastropoda: Neogastropoda) - PMC

The neogastropod family Columbellidae is a highly successful group of small, primarily epibenthic marine snails distributed worldwide and most abundant in the tropics. The great diversity of the group makes them attractive for studying evolutionary ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

That’s a relief!