Coral eating snail

John3 · Dec 24, 2020

This snail was hunkered down on a branch of my torch for a few weeks. I noticed the the heads he was by started to die off, but didn’t think anything of it.

last night I came down in the dark to add some water and took a look in the tank. To my surprise this snail was on the top of a torch head eating away.

I haven’t seen a snail like this before. It could have hitchhiked one with some gulf live rock, or possibly came mixed in with a purchase of snails.

Any idea what kind of snail this is?

John3 · Dec 24, 2020

It’s about a 1/2” wide. The color is more reddish than the pics show. Also the snail was slimy to the touch, like it had Coral slime on it.

JGT · Dec 24, 2020

Looks like a turbo. Probably eating the dead coral flesh.

Zoa_Fanatic · Dec 26, 2020

JGT said:
Looks like a turbo. Probably eating the dead coral flesh.

Never had any kinds turbo eat dead coral for me. Looks closest to an astrea turbo and mine don’t munch anything but algea.

Kapachuka3 · Dec 30, 2020

claudius_galen said:
Never had any kinds turbo eat dead coral for me. Looks closest to an astrea turbo and mine don’t munch anything but algea.

Looks like a trochus

JPM San Diego · Dec 30, 2020

Not a Trochus snail. Banding is not correct and opening is too rounded. Trochus snails have a flatter opening, more parallel to the base of the shell.

vetteguy53081 · Dec 30, 2020

The only time Ive seen a similar shell and one that ironically house a snail thatalso eats coral is that of a Whelk snail

Zoa_Fanatic · Dec 30, 2020

vetteguy53081 said:
The only time Ive seen a similar shell and one that ironically house a snail thatalso eats coral is that of a Whelk snail

Whelks look like Nassarius. Or at least the ones I’ve seen do.

vetteguy53081 · Dec 30, 2020

claudius_galen said:
Whelks look like Nassarius. Or at least the ones I’ve seen do.

Somewhat similar but have a longer tattoo patterned snout and a protective flap on their tail

serwobow · Dec 30, 2020

Wow. It is different looking than any trochus, astrea, turbo, or whelk or nassarius. that I have ever had. And I have never seen a snail on a torch or euphyllia. If your torch was sick or dying, then that would probably explain it, because snails will eat dying stuff. But if it is a torch pest, that would be very interesting. I hope you find out what it is. I think there are some snail experts on this forum who probably can ID it.

John3 · Feb 15, 2021

As soon as I put this snail in my dump my torch recovered. I did end up loosing 1 head. I’m still convinced it was eating my healthy torch. It was living in 1 spot on the skeleton during day like it was it’s home and then feasting at night. That habit reminds me a lot of a whelk but I’d agree it wasn’t a whelk.

I was down in the dump last weekend and found this snail had died. I do till have it’s shell.

king aiptasia · Feb 16, 2021

John3 said:
As soon as I put this snail in my dump my torch recovered. I did end up loosing 1 head. I’m still convinced it was eating my healthy torch. It was living in 1 spot on the skeleton during day like it was it’s home and then feasting at night. That habit reminds me a lot of a whelk but I’d agree it wasn’t a whelk.

I was down in the dump last weekend and found this snail had died. I do till have it’s shell.

take the shell out and store it in a dry cotton lined or soft paper lined container for protection and later identification, just because it may be related to popular grazing snails does not mean it was a grazer its self