Whelk or Nassarius?

[DanSavesTheDay]

Just noticed this guy tonight crawling across the sand bed and need an ID.

Is this a nassarius or whelk he seems just a tiny bit bigger than any nassarius I've had in the past and it's feeler is more of a black color "is this normal?". The shell looks to be a somewhat different color than my other nassarius as well "is this normal?". I couldn't see a tattoo pattern on it for sure it looks like it was mostly covered in sand.

I returned downstairs roughly half an hour to an hour later it didn't look like it hunted down or killed any snails or my starfish but was on the underside of my zoanthid rock.

An ID would be greatly appreciated and I guess I would definitely like to know if it is a nassarius and not a whelk are there different color variations of nassarius snail.

Thank you reefers

 

[Krzydmnd]

Easiest way to tell is a whelk will have a hard trap door, like a fingernail.

 

[reef lover]

Yup...and the siphon canal.will be tight...

 

[garbled]

There are about 2-3 different types of nassarius snails that I've seen over the years in the trade. That definitely looks like one to me. There are a few that are smaller, and kinda brown/tan like that, and then another type that is larger and darkish, and then another that is really small and white.

I'm sure there are more, these are just the types I've personally had in the tank. It doesn't look whelk-like to me at all.

 

[DanSavesTheDay]

Easiest way to tell is a whelk will have a hard trap door, like a fingernail.

No hard trap door thank you

 

[DanSavesTheDay]

Yup...and the siphon canal.will be tight...

Doesn't look quite the same. Thank you for the response

 

[DanSavesTheDay]

There are about 2-3 different types of nassarius snails that I've seen over the years in the trade. That definitely looks like one to me. There are a few that are smaller, and kinda brown/tan like that, and then another type that is larger and darkish, and then another that is really small and white.

I'm sure there are more, these are just the types I've personally had in the tank. It doesn't look whelk-like to me at all.

Just found that out yesterday lol thank you for your response. I figured he wasn't a whelk when all he wanted to do was stay buried in the sandbed or on the underside of a rock. Didn't care one bit about all the other tasty snails lol

 

[Seymo44]

Redacted