Snail Id Please?

[stang1]

We have about 5 of these snails living in our marine tank but I'm yet to identify them.
Lynden kindly referred me to his hitch-hiker guide but I'm still not sure what type they are and whether they are harmful or not.
Any help much appreciated,
Angie

 

[Lynden]

My knowledge of molluscs is far from complete, but to me, that snail looks like one very colourful nerite. Nerites are harmless to living animals.

It could also be a 'sundial' snail, which are zoanthid biters.

Option number three is a collonista snail, which eat algae.

 

[stang1]

Thanks again Lynden.
I did have a look at your guide but I couldn't tell if it was a Collonista or Sundial snail, they both look fairly similar.
I'll have to keep an eye on them and see if I can work it out.

 

[Danno]

Looks like a sundial snail to me.

 

[SkiFletch]

The way to tell is to look closely at their shell. Sundial snails have a shell covered in square ridges, and almoast looks like its covered in tiles. The other species you mentioned have smooth shells.

 

[stang1]

Thanks for that Ski.
I can't see any at the moment so I'll wait until one shows itself and have a better look.

 

[Donya]

How big is it? Some of my Collonista snails looks pretty much exactly like that. There are some collonista pics here (down a ways): http/www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rs/index.php they dont' get very big though.

 

[stang1]

Thanks Donya.
They do look like Collonista snails but the markings are quite dark. They are only about 10-15cm and I haven't seen any bigger than that. Thanks for the link, that was an interesting.

 

[Lynden]

I wish I got 6'' hitch hiker snails on my live rock...

Are you sure you don't mean 'mm' instead of 'cm'? Just buggin' ya.

 

[stang1]

I wish I got 6'' hitch hiker snails on my live rock...

Are you sure you don't mean 'mm' instead of 'cm'? Just buggin' ya.

Ooops, I did mean mm and not cm...
Thanks for pointing that out, I'll be certain to let you know if I come across any 6" snails!

 

[RicksReef]

I know this is a old post , but i recently had this problem and found these pics on www.melevsreef.com and they really helped me out. The malicious Sundial snails