I have snail issues?????

[Highrise]

I have a population boom in my tank of unidentified snails their shells are black and white striped. Instead of having raduli beneath them by their foot for scraping they have what looks like a vacuum tube hanging out the front with two "antenna?" I am afraid they are carnivorous. Currently there are about 80 to 100 in my tank. I would like to balance the pop with another invert that eats snails. So if anyone has an id for these or knows of an invert that can balance the population of snails please respond

 

[INNOVATOR]

First thing that comes to mind is the Bumble Bee snail, Pusiostoma? If so they are reef safe and tend to burry themselves in the sand bed. Do get a pic to make a positive id though!

 

[Highrise]

Yeah well I verified, they are carnivorous. Now I am tryng to find an invert that will hunt them down and eat them. My objective to to acquire one invert that will do this and bablance the population. (Not completely kill them off). I am trying to maintain a balance ya know. Right now they are having a huge pop boom (currently 30+) in a small 35gal hex tank. I guess they will become cannibalistic when the food sources run out (whatever they may be). Anyways if you know any other inverts that may want to get their munch on, let me know. Also, how voracious are arrow crabs? I was thinking about picking up one or two to balance the bristle worm pop. They worms are great for cleaning the bottom of the tank but I want to thin the ranks a little.

 

[Anonymous]

I don't know of anything that will eat those whelks and not cause you problems down the road. I suggest every once in a while hand picking them out if you are pretty sure they are whelks. That is what I am doing now for my own whelk problem.

 

[Wormy]

Sounds kinda like a whelk. If they are, then they are carnivorous. If you can verify this, you should try to remove them. I have a small whelk population in my tank that I am monitoring carefully. So far, they aren't causing any more damage than the devistation of my stomatella population. My Astrea snails are too big for them, so I have let the whelks stay. I do monitor the population carefully though.

 

[Wormy]

I agree with Mulberry. Anything you add to take out the whelks will also feast on any beneficial snails you try to add. Better to just pick them out by hand. My experience has been that they're much more active at night. try getting them a few hours after lights out...you'll probably have more of them out in the open. Getting them all will require some dilligence. If you see one, grab it while you can, because it may be a few days before you get another chance.