Super small snails on live rock?

[TylerLSnyder]

I have had my tank for two monthes now and I have noticde recently that there are these tiny snail like creatures on my live rock. They are about two millimeters in diameter and only really come out at night.

 

[marcah]

looks like baby snails to me, did you go through a point where you saw your snails spawning or even your skimmer go nuts for awhile?

 

[TylerLSnyder]

Not at all. I actually only have two snails and they are not even the same type.

 

[Old_Moe]

I have them too, Little fish said to keep an eye on the sofies when I asked a couple of weeks ago... so far so good for me.

 

[TylerLSnyder]

They are definately baby snails. I just saw two and they had little antenna and everything. They only stay on the live rock though...

 

[little_fish]

Nope, those guys are near full grown! They are in the same family as the turbo snail but stay very small. Keep an eye on your soft corals, there is one variety in the same family that has taste for softies. The bad ones get bigger than what you have in the picture.

 

[TylerLSnyder]

Is the only way to distinguish between the bad and good ones watching to see if they get Nigeria?

 

[TylerLSnyder]

Bigger*
My phone's autocorrect is ignorant.

 

[little_fish]

umm... I think that is suppose to say "any bigger" :)


And I dont think so, i think the bad guys are a little flatter. I dont think you have any thing to worry about, but the bad guys are called sundial snails if you want to look up more about them.

 

[TylerLSnyder]

Just came across your post about the sundials in the other thread. Do you often find yourself giving the same advice over and over again?

 

[little_fish]

yes :)

 

[TylerLSnyder]

Other things I have noticed on my live rock are little brittle starfish legs. I think there are two micros but one that isn't. Is there any way to coax the larger one that doesn't really seem like a micro out?

 

[little_fish]

still probably a micro, depending on the specific species you can get a whole host of different sizes. The other thing it might be is a bristle worm, either way a great member of you CUC, just dont touch the bristle worm.

You can try coaxing them out by placing a big piece of meaty food near their den

 

[Bifferwine]

They are called collonista snails.