Wild collected Snails from Corpus Christi ( sort of long)

[Dewman]

I just returned from a trip to South Padre and Port Aransas Near Corpus. While there, the wind was a steady 30 knots and the surf was high.It had blown a Man-of-War ashore every ten feet. Plus there was TONS of cueleurpa (or something) covering the beach, so I decided that instead of swimming, I would drive to the Jetty in Port Aransas and search the rocks for critters.
What I found was amazing. Living in Arkansas, 12 hours from the shore, I decided to collect some of these treasures for redistribution among my friendsback home. I bought a rubbermaid container and started picking through the rocks. i found tons of big snails and limpits. I also found little grey crabs (about an inch) and also found some small scallops.
I have them in a holding tank right now. I am not sure what the snails are but they are cleaning the walls and burrowing in the sand. I want to find out what these are, but I can't find a snail that resembles them. I know they are probably not Periwinkles. They were below the waterline and the tide was receding.
Does anyone have a suggestion on what these migjht be or where I can find a guide to their identity?? Sorry this was so long. : )

 

[scooterr]

Texas is great isn't it! Did you see the cranes?

I've been there twice in the past 3 years.

anyways, Do you know what cerith (conical shape), margaritas (nerite)(usually black and white), and astreas look like? Chances are it was one ot these. All are good herbivors.

 

[scooterr]

There are many snails with siphons. Maybe a murex or nassarius of sorts? I'd suggest you go to a library and look at a shell book.

Are you a birder? I saw plenty of cara caras as well. How far south did you get?

 

[Saxe]

be careful. Some like the Atlantic Oyster Drill as seen here( http://www.calvertnet.k12.md.us/schools/chespax/oysterdrill.html ) are predatory.

 

[SPC]

Dewman, it would be imposible to say what they are without a picture, even Dr Ron has trouble identifying snails if the picture is not good. I will tell you this though, if they sit in one place for a long period of time with their snout up, then they are smelling for food (welks). If they cruise around most of the time then they probably are harmless. Dr Ron has stated many times that there are alot more harmful (carnivores) species than good.
Steve

 

[texman]

I lived on South Padre Island for 2 years and now live about 25 miles away in Brownsville. Although, I cannot say that I have seen snails like the ones that you are describing, most anything that I have collected in this area tends to be very nasty towards docile reef animals. The environment here is relatively harsh compared to a tropical reef environment. We have wild swings in temperature, wicked currents and generally dirty water (compared to a typical reef) There are alot of nasty fish like seargent major's and blennies which will kill just about any of your nicer reef fish. There are also lots of urchins which will eat coral etc. We do have some butterfly fish and the occasional grey angel as well as some spiny lobsters, but there is not much that can be put in a reef tank. They only thing that I have found that is really good out on the jetties are peppermint shrimp. They are easy to catch at night with a flashlight. There are usually hundreds of them in the pools of calm water between the rocks. The seaweed on the beach is sargasm. There are usually small fish and shrimp living among it while it is floating, but beware of sargasm anglers! I caught three of them once and put them in a bucket. A few hours later, there was only one fat one left! As you said, there is a lot of cool stuff out there, but beware, since almost everything is quite incompatible with a reef tank. Furthermore, there are frequent outbreaks of different types of toxic plankton which could be hiding in your snails. I think that it would be a great idea for you to take a picture of the snails and post it here so that someone can identify them for you.

 

[cubera]

Might send photos to the University of Texas at Galveston. Extensive research is done there on Gulf Coast dwellers and it seems someone there could help you out with your questions. Just a thought

 

[Dewman]

I did see a couple of cranes and I saw some really cool raptors from Mexico called Cara Cara's.
I know it's difficult to identify these snails without a picture, but I know they are not Margueita's and I know they are not Turbo's. Although, thy do look like some of the Mexican Turbos I have. The shells are spiral like a conch. They have a flanged opening and are tan and brown striped. They range in length from 1/4 inch to 1" long. The only real distinguishing feature I can see is that they have a long tube sticking out in front of them when thy are suctioned to something. It looks like a siphon or something.
Thanks for the reply. I need to ID these before I give them to the LFS (in trade of course).

 

[Anonymous]

The tube sticking out sounds like possibly a whelk of some type.

 

[Dewman]

I have heard whelks are bad, because they eat other animals.

 

[texman]

The sargasm floats around all year and is an excellent place to fish for Dorado and other tasty fish in the summer. In the summer months, the sargasm usually does not wash up very much on the beach and stays furhter offshore. When the water starts to get a little warmer (>75), you won't see the jellyfish any more. They also stay much further offshore. Try diving around the jetties here in the summer (June-Sept) The water is much more clear and there is a lot more to see. You might even see a Goliath grouper (AKA Jewfish)or shark around the jetties.

 

[Saxe]

hehe, One summer I was shrimping out of Grand Isle, LA. I netted many interesting creatures. Of note were a luminescent Midshipman, Sargassum Fish, and Sargassum Seahorse. The Midshipman and seahorse did very well in a 75 gallon. The Sargassum fish did very well! In fact he became the most expensive fish we ever owned! He ate anything and everything. They are however very intersting to watch. Like a Mantis Shrimp there is beauty in thier extremely efficient predatory design. We had a stone crab that was neat to. Just don't expect your rocks to stay the way you put them.

 

[Dewman]

OK, so now I'm scared.
The snails I collected looked exactly like the oyster drill. They were just a little darker.
So, does the sargasm stay around like this all year long? It was piling up as high as two feet in some places. Don't sea horses live in the sargasm? Do the man-of War's and Cabbage Heads always wash ashore in such high numbers?

I have looked all over the internet to find the shells and still have had no luck. I will try taking a picture of them. since I don't have a digital camera, I might lay some on my scanner and scan them. It should do about the same thing I think.