Snail ID

Tathamet · May 24, 2020

Hi everyone,

so I ordered a few inverts as a cleanup crew for my 9g nano. 1 Nassarius Snail (Says Nassarius Vibex is the species) being one of them.

when they were packing my Order to be shipped they called me to tell me they were actually out of Nassarius snails and that they could give me another snail in its place. I told them to just add another Cerith instead.

so my order came and I ended up getting a snail labeled as Nassarius anyway (no extra Cerith) but other than it’s trunk it doesn’t seem to look like or act like a Nassarius to me. Though, I could be wrong.

I’ve read that they bury themselves in the sand and are fast movers but haven’t seen it do either. Rather it seems to move maybe an inch or two a day and has been exclusively staying on the live rock. Also eating algae which I thought they didn’t do.

another thing that seems off is the shell. It seems way smoother than I’ve seen for Nassarius. I’m used to seeing them with a bunch of ridges on their shell.

can anyone help me identify what it is?
I’m not too concerned or anything. Just more curious as to what it is.

ignore the nerite and hermit below it and on the left lol.

sorry if the image isn’t great. the lights were off so I just used a flashlight and my phone to take a quick picture. If need be I can pull out my DSLR and try to snap a better image tomorrow.

let me know what you think
Thanks,
Al

35ppt · May 24, 2020

Redacted

Tathamet · May 24, 2020

Hmm I’m not sure. I haven’t been feeding anything yet. But it’s possible there was some detritus build up there. Do they eat hermit and snail poop? Or possibly dead and decomposing algae? The algae has been slowly browning out and not growing much since I’ve got things more in check.

it looked like it cleared a small patch of algae and it had a constant strand of poop coming out of it so it was eating something there anyway.

all of today though it’s been sitting at the top of the bare rock that the nerites already cleared of algae. Seemingly doing nothing. hasn’t left the rocks yet since I put it in on Wednesday.

as for the species. yeah, it’s possible. The last image in that link looked somewhat similar. The shell on mine looks pretty dirty though so it’s hard to tell. I’ll see if I can get some more detail with a macro lens when the lights are on at peak.

35ppt · May 24, 2020

Redacted

TriggerFinger · May 24, 2020

I have one nassarius snail out of maybe 6 or so that climbs the glass and sleeps on the frag rack occasionally....I think he’s a bit derpy and has been watching the cerith snails too often!

Tathamet · May 24, 2020

Ok so I’m having a real hard time with the DSLR and macro lens lol. The bowed glass doesn’t help either.

the first image was actually taken with my phone last night the same time as the original posted image. As you can see here it’s kinda speckled with black spots and looks solid black on the front face part

This one was with the macro. Still not a great shot but it was the best out of a bunch I took haha. You can see the trap on the back of the foot in this image. Not sure if that helps Id them or not.

this morning I finally saw it in the sand but it was upside down like it had fallen off the rocks. it’s just been sitting there since (on top of the sand).

i also just flipped it over to take this image so you can see the opening a bit. Started coming out as I was taking the photo.