What are these Snails?

[Joe Tony]

I've had these snails lurking around for about 8 months, since my last major shipment of live rock. I've compared them to pictures of similar looking whelks, which I know prey on snails and clams, but I've observed these for a long time and have never seen them prey on those creatures. Rather, I've seen them much on the rocks and walls as if eating algae. Are they just a special kind of nassarius snail that eats algae? Or are they something I should be worried about?

 

[Specific Ocean]

Looks like a whelk to me

 

[Joe Tony]

Looks like a whelk to me

What should I do? I've had them for nearly a year now and haven't seen anything resembling a snailpocalypse, nor have I seen them kill a snail or clam once. They also haven't exploded to plague proportions.

I don't like removing critters unless I know they're bad news. Is it possible that I have whelks that are more scavengers than predators?

 

[Strangewaterchange]

Whelk versus Nassarius | Melev's Reef

www.melevsreef.com

Hard to tell in the pic if the trunk looks "tattooed" or not. It seems like it's a solid color so it might not be a whelk but it could be. If you haven't had a problem with them I would say if it's not broken don't fix it.

 

[Joe Tony]

Whelk versus Nassarius | Melev's Reef

www.melevsreef.com

Hard to tell in the pic if the trunk looks "tattooed" or not. It seems like it's a solid color so it might not be a whelk but it could be. If you haven't had a problem with them I would say if it's not broken don't fix it.

Whether or not this would be considered "tattooed," the snails definitely have striped patterns between blackish brown, dark grey, and light grey. But like I said, I haven't seen any indication of it preying on any of my critters in the many months I've had them. They just kind of come out occasionally at night either to scavenge or eat algae (hard to tell).