assumed Cymatium snail

[Anonymous]

A friend of mine had the unfortunate luck of finding what looks like a Cymatium snail (according to the Knop clam book) eating his lighting scallop (it had already polished off his derasa as well). Instead of killing the little bugger (who was admittedly doing what he was born to do), I took him from my friend and put him in a 10 gallon odds-and-ends tank I keep for stuff I can't figure out what to do with.

My question is, can I keep this guy alive on a diet other than the aforementioned shellfish or will he starve?

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Glad to hear you didn't just kill the snail.

Unless I see a picture, so I can identify the beast, I can't give you a good handle on foods.

However, many cymatiids are pretty good scavengers as well as predators. Most prefer sea stars and echinoderms as food, and will eat those tissues regularly. If you have a sea food store that carries fresh foods, you should be able to find some food for the snail.

Start with small pieces of clams (easy food it will eat them). If it doesn't eat that, see if you can find some sea urchin roe and try a bit of that.

If the snail doesn't eat clams, by the way, it probably wasn't attacking your clam.

Good luck!

Cheers, Ron