Snail ID/Info Please

[ornel]

Ok, I know I should post a picture... but I am working on that. In the mean time, I was wondering of anyone has any info on what kind of snails I have taking over my tank.
Description 1: Nocturnal. 3/16" seems to be adult size. Smooth shell with similar shape to Neritidae nerita funiculata (Margarita Snail). Color pattern is dark brown/light brown alternating. During the day it almost seems white/black. I have had them for about 3 months now and was for a while pulling them out by hand (50 at a time) of my 70 system. After a while we had the great idea of letting them control themselves via lack of food source, but that hasnt happened yet. Just a population explosion(over 300). Seem to be grazing and not bothering my coral, but will soon be competing with my tank snails for food.
Description 2:I just noticed the second kind of snail a week ago. There arent many(25 seen), but the ones that I have seen are on my turbo snails. These littles guys are getting me worried. They have 1-2mm white shells. They are very conical. (skinny and long) I have only noticed them "riding" near the shell lip. I am hoping they are just trying to catch scraps while my large turbos graze.
Any help would be awesome. I will do my best to get some pics up asap. Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

1 - Columbellid (educated guess) - good diatom grazers.

2 - Pyramid (for sure) - Bad, they are eating your Turbos.

 

[ornel]

Thanks for the quick reply. I am taking your word on the pyramid snail. I hopped downstairs and pull one of my turbo's and found 38 of them on the bottem side of the shell. I can deal with grabbing all my snails and cleaning them off, but is there any info on a natural predator?
Also the Columbellidae was a good guess but not it. Too big, too conical. These guys have the same shape as a margarita and similar color pattern to the Columbellidae. I need to get this under control and sooner is much better.
Any more info would be great.

 

[Anonymous]

Too big? Many of them are less than 1/4" full grown. Ah well, you have the animal. A pic sure would help.

A Six-Line Wrasse will eat the Pyramid snails along with the Columbellid look-a-likes.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

First ones sound like Collonista snails. Do they look like this?

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rs/index.htm

 

[ornel]

yes they do! Any idea how to control them?

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

No need to control them. They are harmless nocturnal grazers. Thier population will depend on the amount of film algae available for grazing. My population seems to have dropped a bit in the past few months.

 

[Mihai]

Don't worry about the collonista - they are now my main grazers. It's true that they starved my turbo to death, but they took over and they are doing a fine job.