Whelk, who might you be?

[N.Sreefer]

Not a whelk. Two traits to identify a whelk is a little flap at its’ rare and mainly, it’s snout has a pattern in it as if it has been tattooed. This snail more resembles a nassarius.

Have to respectfully disagree "The whelks have long, thin siphonal canals, a broad aperture, and are topped with a very short spire." Shell morphology is how whelks are identified colours/patterns on the body are not an accurate way of identification.

 

[Brit’s Fish]

Have to respectfully disagree "The whelks have long, thin siphonal canals, a broad aperture, and are topped with a very short spire." Shell morphology is how whelks are identified colours/patterns on the body are not an accurate way of identification.

If he’s a Dogwinkle, as you mentioned, is that a bad whelk? To muddy the waters even more, I read somewhere that nassarius snails are sometimes called dog whelks. ;Dead But I know that what we are talking about is different!

 

[P-Dub]

You can rest assured, it is not a whelk.
Standing by the White Rock. Take a look at the photo in the link I included and tell me that is not the same snail.

 

[Brit’s Fish]

You can rest assured, it is not a whelk.
Standing by the White Rock. Take a look at the photo in the link I included and tell me that is not the same snail.

That is pretty much exactly the same snail! The shell looks the same. Thank you for finding that!!
so what you’re saying is that my little snail can cure cancer?!

 

[N.Sreefer]

If it is a dogwinkle not another similar whelk species than its an obligate clam eater. So whether its safe or not depends on your stocking. Last pics aperture is smaller than the ops pic gotta admit they look similar in plant science we use leaf shape/veination alot because many plants look exactly the same to the untrained eye. Thats why marine biologists use shell morphology.

 

[P-Dub]

That is pretty much exactly the same snail! The shell looks the same. Thank you for finding that!!
so what you’re saying is that my little snail can cure cancer?!

It appears it just might!

 

[Lasse]

That is pretty much exactly the same snail! The shell looks the same. Thank you for finding that!!
so what you’re saying is that my little snail can cure cancer?!

But sea life have another picture of this snail

Below - there are links to SeaLifesBases indentification sheets to som of the suggestions in this thread

Fish Identification

Fish Identification

Fish Identification

Fish Identification

Good luck

Sincerely Lasse

 

[vetteguy53081]

Yeah, the more I read this thread and research, I don’t think this is a whelk anymore. Melev’s reef mentioned those two features as well, which he doesn’t have. Somewhere else mentioned the dark shells which are definitely in the list poster’s pic but my guy has a pretty light shell. He’s actually a really pretty, bright white all over his body/foot. I’m going to keep an eye on him for now. As I mentioned, I didn’t even know it was alive until today lol. He climbed the glass right after I did a water change & actually moved pretty quickly like a nassarius. If he starts bothering my corals, into the sump he goes!

Kinda' funny. When you disturb the bedding such as with water changes, other than at night is when a nassarius will pop out of bedding.

 

[P-Dub]

But sea life have another picture of this snail

Below - there are links to SeaLifesBases indentification sheets to som of the suggestions in this thread

Fish Identification

Fish Identification

Fish Identification

Fish Identification

Good luck

Sincerely Lasse

As I stated in my first response post. I'm dubious it is the actual snail in the photo... So, I wonder if we ever will really know.

 

[Lasse]

So, I wonder if we ever will really know.

Probably not - but in my mind - every organism is innocent until proven otherwise

Sincerely Lasse

 

[vetteguy53081]

Have to respectfully disagree "The whelks have long, thin siphonal canals, a broad aperture, and are topped with a very short spire." Shell morphology is how whelks are identified colours/patterns on the body are not an accurate way of identification.

Besides whelks getting larger, If you look at the texture of their snouts, there is a specific pattern "tattooed" onto the flesh of the Whelk. Also, the Whelk has a protective shell on its tail that it uses to seal itself in its shell when in danger. This gives it a water tight seal. Whelks don't travel too quickly whereas nassarius do move at a fast pace. Nassarius snails have trunks too, it's actually called a siphon and they use it to smell, breathe, and for a few other reasons. The thing to look for in whelks is a pattern on their skin, sort of like spots or somewhat uniformly shaped splotches all over anything that isn't shell. They also have different shaped shells a vast majority of the time (smaller ones look alot like small nassarius snails though). Not a whelk.

 

[Brit’s Fish]

I saw him again today scooting around a rock that’s in my sand bed after I fed the fish. Now that I’ve realized it’s actually alive, I’m keeping an eye on him! Thank you everyone for the awesome replies and help!!

 

[Brit’s Fish]

Now I’m super curious... are the regular nassarius snails we have in our tanks also whelks? I have two different kinds in my largest tank - what I think are regular nassarius snails and two kinda huge Babylonian snails. Are these actually in the whelk family also?

 

[Sharlow]

Now I’m super curious... are the regular nassarius snails we have in our tanks also whelks? I have two different kinds in my largest tank - what I think are regular nassarius snails and two kinda huge Babylonian snails. Are these actually in the whelk family also?

Those are Tongan Nassarius. Not whelks, just scavengers.

 

[KJ]

Babylonian snails.

Remove Babylonian snails the are predatory. And Nassarius snail belong to Whelk family also.

 

[Brit’s Fish]

Update: still here, still scooting around in the tank all the time, grew a little but still behaving!

 

[Goaway]

Glad you kept him. Beautiful snail

 

[Brit’s Fish]

New photos of this guy, mostly for my own way of keeping track of him. He rode around on my zebra turbo’s shell for the last two days, I’m assuming he was cleaning it? Here’s another closeup of him… he’s probably doubled in size over the last year. Still behaving as far as I can tell. His foot is a really pretty bright white with even brighter white spots.

 

[Brit’s Fish]

Still keeping track of this guy. He’s grown to about 1/2 inch now and still seemingly not bothering anyone. He’s a fairly lazy guy as far as I can tell… sitting in the same places for days at a time or lazily letting the turbos carry him for a few days. Still wish I really knew what he is!

 

[Brit’s Fish]

I got a couple pics after removing him from the turbo. Here he is in the middle of a U-turn. I still think his foot is so pretty. The pattern is really nice.