had purchased 8 bumblebee snails and put them in my reef aquarium before I'd heard of Dr. Shimek's articles. By then, I had only observed the snails moving slowly across the substrate and the rocks-nothing harmful. Ive seen them creep slowly towards a coral or another LR structure, and then turn away from it when they bump into it to continue elsewhere. I keep a watchful eye on things that like to crawl on my corals and cause them to withdraw--thats a main reason why I dont like blue legged hermits in small reefs. IMO you'd have to have a sickly or dying worm or pod before they would be caught by these slow snails.
However, sometimes my zoanthid colonies will close up for a few days. if I ever find a link between this activity and the beautiful snails they are goners. the snails.
It is possible that these snails are consuming smaller life forms that would otherwise be found on the LR surface, maybe some of the ultra-tiny sessile organisms... but as far as our chief concerns (coralline, corals, macros, amphipods, tunicates, filter feeders, bristleworms etc.) they seem to pass the test with flying colors so far. matter of fact, today I was just going to go buy some more to put in another small reef.
This is JMO!
if Dr. Shimek says they are harmful then theres a good darn chance they are to something. perhaps a tank without bumblebees would have more LR biodiversity than one with...
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