Found a baby snail on LR: Brown with white stripes

[kinetic]

Finally found a hitchhiker on my live rock! It's been 4 weeks now, finally something alive other than my clam that I found in my sand is alive. Can someone ID this snail for me? It's really small. (I lost my macro lens for my d70, sorry about the blurry picture)

 

 

 

thanks!

[Caesar777]

Harmless nocturnal grazer, usually called "colonista" with either one or two L's. I can say with 99% assuredness that it's NOT a Sundial snail, before anyone notes... Pick it off the rock. Is the door flat-ish/maybe slightly domed, or an obvious long cone? If it's the former, then no problem. If it's the latter, then it's a sundial, a zoanthid-eater.

[kinetic]

it's definately not a long cone. It's pretty round, and the point is domed but it's not a long cone.

 

Thanks!!

[Daemonfly]

I have a few of these in my 2.5g. Like Caesar777 said, perfectly harmless and are good grazers, for their size.

[Caesar777]

I have a million of 'em. Saw lots of new babies last night, too. Nice little fellas, no problem that I've found. And they eat algae!

[Angel]

http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/pages/main_page...s/faq_rock2.htm

 

This is a good page for referencing some hh's. The last pic is the little guy you have.

 

http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/pages/picture_p..._tinyturbo.html

[Caesar777]

"These are probably not harmful at all. They are most likely a small species of the Genus Arene (Astrea) or possibly of the Genus Macarene snail. The differences are minute as the two families are closely related. They are perfectly reef safe and will graze film algae at night. In the author's experience, they can reproduce quickly, becoming a small army in a short period of time."

[Caesar777]

I always lose the link to that ID page. It's a good one.

 

The zoo-eating snail, just for reference, looks like this... (See link) http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/pages/picture_p...q_heliacus.html

[kinetic]

thanks guys! this is a great link

[Caesar777]

Sure is. I bookmarked it this time, to post for the Q's next time they come up! (It'd make a good sticky or info page note.)