snail -- no pic

[judyb]

I bought a couple small hermit crabs last week. The guy at the LFS also included a handful of empty shells from the bottom of the tank for future crab homes. Some of the empty shells turned out not to be empty and I ended up with a couple extra hermit crabs .

However, I also ended up with a snail that I'm not sure I want to keep. I can't get a picture, because he (she??) is buried in the sand, but the shell is conical and about an inch long.

My concern is that it is disturbing my DSB. It digs hole a couple inches across and 1/2" to 1" deep. In the process it throws sand all over my mushroom rock and has almost covered one 'shroom (I used my baster to blow the sand off the poor shroom).

Should I remove this guy, or is he just doing his job?

 

[Will C1]

you probably got a queen or fighting conch. they like to eat poop in the sand so he is doing his job, they will disturb a dsb but one shouldent do too much damage depending on your tank size and dsb depth, i use bumble bee snails instead of conchs because their a lot smaller and i have only seen them at shallow depths in my sand.

 

[judyb]

Thanks for the response. I was hoping that the thing would not destroy my dsb or release anything toxic by digging around.

My tank is 18 months old, a 20 gal with about with about 25# of live rock and my dsb ranges from 3.5 to 5.5 inches and the coralline algae is gradually covering the bare rock.

After several false starts with livestock, I've been extremely cautious -- mostly just watching the liverock fauna.

My current livestock consists of:
1 yellowtail damsel (a meany, and the reason I don't have other fish)
2 mushroom rocks (maybe 15 to 20 'shrooms from <1/4 inch to 1.5 inch
2 small polyps (hitch hikers)
2 oysters (hitch hikers)
1 medium sized "zebra" hermit (1 inch shell)
2 small hermit crabs (1/2 inch shell)
2 or 3 tiny hermit crabs (< 1/2 inch shell)
many bristleworms from 1 inch to 5 inches long
lots of little sponges -- white, yellow and pink
lots of little bitty fan worms
dozens of white brittle stars (from <1/4 inch to 1.5 inch total diameter)
and
multiple dozens of snails (2 kinds) I don't know what they are -- they came in a detritus package and reproduce like crazy -- one kind grows to about half and inch and the other (more prolific) is less than a quarter-inch

Thanks again for the info. I'll let the conch do it's business in peace.

best regards,
JudyB