Did I put something STUPID in my tank?!

When I started up my new 240 in September, I added a whole crapola load of cleaner crew, and my LFS sold me these "new pretty nassarius snails" that they had just gotten in. I bought a handful of them, and have never had a problem with them. They act just like regular old nassarius snails, and I never thought anything differently about them.

Then, I just happened to be browsing this page. And know what they are? Babylonia Whelk (Predator). According to Indo Pacific Snails.

I googled babylonia whelk and get ALL SORTS of different pictures. But my snails are definitely the ones pictured in the link above.

My question: Has anyone else seen these snails sold as nassarius? Can anyone tell me for sure if they are whelks? Because if they are, I'm SUPER PISSED. I have a buttload in my tank. They are big, like the size of ping pong balls.

 

I have never seen any nassarius that look like that sold here at the lfs. but i would guess it is possible as they look very close to the same.

 

I get confused when people use the generic term whelk.Isn't all nassaruis a whelk as well?I seen the snails sold at online sites and at the LFS as nassarius but are actually Ilyanassa snails.I have several that are slightly smaller than the Tongan Nassarius.They differ in that they do not bury and spend more time on the rocks and glass than the sand.I have not lost any corals from them.If you look at the site,all the nassarius are considered NOT REEF SAFE an that can't be true.

I have three types of nassarius,one is actually these sometimes referred as Onyx nassarius.....Blue Zoo Aquatics :: Onyx Nassarius Snail

 

Are they damaging anything? Just keep an eye on them and if you have problems remove them then Id say.

 

You have had them in your tank for a while now and if they haven't been a problem they probably won't be right?

 

Ugh. I have no idea if they've been a problem or not. I lost a really pretty clam a while back, it seemed to be perfectly healthy, then I found it covered in the snails eaten to death, I figured it must've died first before the snails would have touched it. Now I don't know. They really only come out when I feed the tank, just like my other "reef safe" "nassarius".

 

for some reason i cant get that page to load up. Fancy Nassarius Snail (Nassarius sp.)
do they look like this????

 

No... They look like this:

Shell Catalogue - Family BABYLONIIDAE

 

biff. the smoother the shell the better IMHO

I have never seen a reef safe snail with a Jagged pointy shell.

 

bifff i am just as confused and confundicated as you are. i had some that looked like this Babylonia kirana i bought like 50 of them when i started three years ago. they seemed to do fine the only thing they ever killed was my first urchin. but then i put some blue legs in and the blue legs ate all of them and that was the end of them. but now looking at that and hearing what you said i am kind of glad

 

Yea I lost a clam also and havent taken the lfs identification since. I pulled out the rest and put um in the fuge. Nirites, and star shell are all that you need. recommend to dump others as you can and change over to the two mentioned.