Coral eating snail!

[wade1]

I've been watching a patch in my green bali slimer (acro) very very slowly expanding... the patch is white, no tissue left and nothing else in the tank has been affected... then today while cleaning the glass, I realized that something in there was moving....


And I found this:

Here is what the coral looks like where its been feeding!

*grumble*

At least I found it!

Wade

 

[JT]

Nice find, in more ways than one.

Family guesses include:

Mitridae
Turridae

 

[epon]

subject him to scientific experiment

 

[wade1]

Experiment #1:

1- Acquire good steel hammer.
2- Place whelk directly on hard surface, preferably concrete.
3- Wail on snail with said hammer until only liquid.


How's that one?

 

[epon]

that's not very scientific

 

[leftovers]

that's not very scientific

sure it is....now you can run a complete essay on the pureed welk...

 

[npaden]

do a gut content analysis on it!

 

[wade1]

Some details, since a few people asked...

~1/2" in length, end to end (the purple blob on the shell is a feather duster tube). The back half of the shell is totally covered in corraline which means it has been in there for a long while.

You can see the traces of green in its tissue, probably from feeding on the coral. It was well up in the branches of the coral feeding, and would wedge itself into Vs in the branches to rest there... tried to hide there when I was removing it.

Thats about the extent of what I know about the little bugger.

Thanks to JT for a guess at Species.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

nice snag wade. I just finally found the predatory whelk that's been in my tank for a year and has been snacking on nassarius snails.