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Snail parasite


MillerLite

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Here's a question for you reefers. Any suggestions/comments would be much appreciated. I have a turbor snail and several margarite snails. I noticed yesterday that several of my margarite snails have extra, translucent tenticles (2-3 per side) radiating from their bodies that move independently. These tenticles are of course an addition to the two antenna that the snail has in the front of the snail. No damage is evident on the snail shell. My question is, are these extra tenticles which are not always symmetrically placed a sign of a parasite (ie. worm, starfish, etc). Although the snails are relatively inexpensive and can be replaced, the fact that serveral are showing this suggest that this could become a problem. I did not notice these extra tenticles on the large turbo snail. Sorry no picture. The tenticles are very translucent and only come out in the water. Will see if I can get a pic to show them. One more thing, when I touch the tenticles with a pair of forceps, the snail does retract. I am not sure if this is because the parasite moves and startles the snail or if the tenticles on the side of the snail's body belongs to the snail.

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I noticed the same thing over the weekend, and posted the same thing - see the invert forum.

 

I also posted my question over at RC, and Ron Shimek answered my question. Turns out it's a spionid polychaete. Here's a picture, as well as a link to my thread on RC:

 

spionid.jpg

 

Here's the thread on RC:

 

Snail Parasite Thread

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Thanks J-Bird! You describe exactly what I see in the margarita snails in my nano. Glad they arent doing anything to the snails. These particular snails are pretty good workers and arent really that lazy at all. If they were suffering, then I would want to get rid of them before they died in my tank. Fascinating isnt it that sometimes what we arent really able to see can sometimes be found as parasites in other inverts. Always an adventure....

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