Tiny whelk? Or something good?

Townes_Van_Camp · May 12, 2023

Found this guy in some wild live sand today, feasting on Coraline algae. Don't care about the Coraline so much. But if it's a baby whelk....

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal · May 13, 2023

There are so many varieties of whelks that it's next to impossible to tell for sure without a detailed examination.
If you didn't put it in the tank deliberately and can't ID, I'd toss it rather than take a chance...

Tired · May 13, 2023

Yeah, best to sump, 'fuge, or cleanly kill it.

Goaway · May 13, 2023

Does the snail burrow in sand at all?

If the snail was eating algae, that rules out whelk. Whelks cant eat algae.

Townes_Van_Camp · May 13, 2023

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal said:
There are so many varieties of whelks that it's next to impossible to tell for sure without a detailed examination.
If you didn't put it in the tank deliberately and can't ID, I'd toss it rather than take a chance...

It's in a orange bucket full of nasties from vacuuming a different tank. I'll kill it and I oss it in the trash.

Goaway said:
Does the snail burrow in sand at all?

If the snail was eating algae, that rules out whelk. Whelks cant eat algae.

It was in a 5 year old tank that the only thing I added to it in 2 years was a single handful of TBS live sand. That was a day before I found this guy. There is a bit of gha in that tank. A couple spots about the size of a US quarter. He wasn't on those. He was on Coraline algae.

Ain't going in my tank though. The last time I had a while it looked just like this guy but about 10x bigger. Within three hours he had killed all of my astrea and turbos. Normally I go with the, "I don't see it causing harm, it can stay until I see it do bad" policy. Not this time.