another zoanthid preditor

mfinn · May 2, 2010

Found this guy in a small frag of zoanthids I picked up at a lfs.
A small one, maybe 1/4" dia.
Sundial Snail.
There are a few snails with similar shell pattern, but this guy has a cone shaped opuculum which is a dead give away.

revhtree · May 2, 2010

Good catch!!

J&O'sdad · May 2, 2010

How big is it? Never mind duh

mfinn · May 2, 2010

This was a small one, but they do get big.
I've seen them as big as a dime.

One of the reasons I posted this is because I see alot of people saying watch to watch out for nudibranchs and a little press on zoanthid eating spiders, but not much on these sundial snails.
They will do damage on your zoanthids.

Lytehouse · May 2, 2010

Thanks for pics. Great idea. Not enough said about these guys and spiders

drainbamage · May 4, 2010

What exactly do these guys do to Zoas? Are they incredibly predatious? I've had some living within colonies, always figured them for tag-alongs and never have noticed much real damage from them...but if they've just been taking out one or two polyps and I hadn't noticed...yikes!

curt · May 4, 2010

I had one once eat through about 75 of the 100 polyp colony before I spoted it.I've heard the sundials will stay on one colony until it's gone.

650-IS350 · May 4, 2010

Slowly eat them.

650-IS350 · May 4, 2010

They camp on the colony for up to a couple weeks till they wipe it out.

Fragged_it · May 4, 2010

I use CoralRX on all in coming corals and it doesn't seem to affect them when they come in on the zoanthids. They have to be carefully hand picked off.
PITA......

mfinn · May 4, 2010

drainbamage said:
What exactly do these guys do to Zoas? Are they incredibly predatious? I've had some living within colonies, always figured them for tag-alongs and never have noticed much real damage from them...but if they've just been taking out one or two polyps and I hadn't noticed...yikes!

There are similar looking snails that don't eat zoanthids, but these ones are definately zoanthid eaters.