That's the one that was in my tank, this one doesn't leave mucus behind, at least I never saw any.

Ande,

From the sound of things on Steve's page, his worm ate soft corals, so maybe I'm going to be lucky and not have that worm or any worm other than bristleworms, which I can handle more or less. I can't see a bristleworm killing snails, but I can see them eating snail leftovers because they are detrivores.

I've got muck's trap made and am waiting for lights out. Actually, I'm going to put in my glass jar trap as well, so I'm going to be covered in a couple of ways :cool:

The scary and most difficult part is going to be doing flashlight duty because it's not going to be easy seeing the hole of origin in a 120g if the culprit is a worm.

Wayne,

How did you get your worm out of your tank, and how big was it?

:eek: :eek: :eek: EEK!



Totally off topic but, that web site you gave, took a look at the other pic's there. WOW! The guy has got an AMAZING TANK! WOW! MY DREAM TANK! Awesome aquascaping! :razz:

Yes, Steve's tank is pretty famous and popular.

:evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :2gunfire: :2gunfire: :2gunfire:

I still don't know what's killing our snails :evil: We made and baited the plastic bottle with PE mysis one night, but got nowhere. That style of trap is so light, it moves around and probably scares off the predator, so I got rid of it :confused: I will get two new plastic bottles this morning and cut them into traps and bait them each with all the dead snails we've got in the graveyard. To prevent the trap from moving around, I think we should probably secure it in place by butting rock up against it.

Anyway, on other nights, we have baited a small glass jar covered with plastic wrap leaving a small opening and have seen a huge bristleworm go for the PE mysis. Most mornings with the glass jar trap, the mysis are gone and no snails are dead.

Last night we did not set any traps. THIS morning, my favourite snail was found dead. It was a hitchhiker that was about 4 times the size of any snail I've ever seen and only came out at night :cry: :eek: :evil: This snail came in on the same rock that the snail killer came in on.

And we still hear sharp, but fairly quiet clicking, often after lights out, but for the past few days we hear it during feeding times especially in the morning.

I'm stumped. Could the monster sized bristleworm be killing these snails and the clicking be from a pistol shrimp, or do we indeed have a mantis?

Any and all suggestions, opinions, comments are welcome.

Well, I'm not familiar enough with the specifics of your situation but, like Quinn hinted, sometimes snails just die. Are you sure they're being predated upon and it's not some kind of snail disease? I have noticed that sometimes when one goes, several others shortly follow (not unlike when a clam goes actually). It's frustrating sometimes.

Tony,

Yes, could be some kind of disease, or they are just dying.

Went into the graveyard to pick up the dead snails to bait the new bottle traps. I picked up the hitchhiker snail and it started to move around :smile: So I put it on the bottom of the tank (BB) and it crawled away :biggrin: What I can't figure out is why it was so close to some rock, yet didn't reach up and grab onto it :confused: Will keep an eye on this snail to see if it turns up dead at some later date.

Also, I baited the traps with some PE mysis. Just waiting for tonight to put the traps in place :2gunfire:

Bev how big is the snail graveyard?

Quinn,

It's a rather small area on the left side of my tank under a throughway I made for the fish to swim. Area must be about 4" x 4". Have also found one dead snail directly behind the rock throughway at the back of the tank. In all there have been one bivalve and about 6-7 snails found dead in this area. It is the same place where we hear the clicking (sharp, but not too loud) as well as where the HUGE bristleworm lives.

Turkey basted the tank today to get ready for the water change and other maintenance we do on Saturdays. Lots of clicking as the crud entered the water column.

Any luck catching the culprit yet Bev?? :confused:

No luck, yet, muck :evil: Have a trap baited with a few dead snails in the tank for the last two nights. Maybe I need to give it a few days.... One dead snail found yesterday, though, and added to the trap :cry:

Still here sharp but fairly quiet clicking throughout the day :confused:

What about putting a snail in the "kill zone" at night and watching with a flashlight?

Contrary to the rumour that I am one of the undead, I actually sleep at night :mrgreen:

We have, however, staked out the kill zone several nights with flashlights and only saw a large bristleworm. Once the BW saw the light, so to speak, it never came out again during the other times we have watched.

Just to add something to the mix. There is a chance the snails do not like BB tanks. The reason I say this is because I bought some Cerith snails a few days ago. I put some in my sand bottom tank, and they took off right away. I put three into my 15G BB tank. They did not move, they did not come out at all for two days. I moved them into a sand bottom tank, and lo and behold they took off right away. :eek: Does that tell us something. :question:

What kind of snail is dying? Do you have different types and is it the same type that is dying?

Just to play with what Bob said a bit, maybe they're dying and the current is simply dragging their shells into that one spot?

Bob, I have about 50 ceriths in my bb and they are rocking along...

Sam,

I have two types of snails, astrea and margarita. Both have been found dead along with one 1.25" bivalve.

BTW, was out with the flashlight last night and found two other large bivalves on the other side of the tank (120g), high up in the rock :biggrin:

I'll lay 3 to 1 odds on the huge bristleworm.

I have a conch that loves snails. Just spent another $46 for astreas. Good thing it only eats a couple a week :rolleyes: .

Egads :eek: No conch here, no sandbed either.

trilinearmipmap,

Could possibly be that huge b-worm. But how the heck do I get rid of it without taking my reef apart :eek: On the other hand, I've had b-worms that big in other tanks, BB and with sandbed, and not had a succession of snails killed.

Still got that trap set with the dead snails. Nothing seems disturbed in the trap over the past 2 days, and no dead snails either.

I have read about a trap that may work for bristleworms. It was made for catching Isopods but it would probably catch bristleworms too.

Take some clear rigid tubing 1/2" size or so. Put the bait in the middle. Plug each end with loose cotton batten.

Anyway it's worth a try.

Got a photo?

Have you tried feeding it T&T cold water snails?

sounds more to me like you have a welk that was sold to you under the false ID as a conch.

Steve

That was my first thought, but there are carnivorous conchs as well. A photo might help identify it.

don't you love it when a thread turnsinto a "who done it" dinner theater :mrgreen:

Steve

OMG!!!!!!! WE GOT IT!!!!!! :eek: :evil: :biggrin:

Just before we "thought" we were going to bed, we took a flashlight to the graveyard (that had been cleared of all bodies). And we found a margarita snail tipped over. Strange, I thought, because margaritas are well known to be able to right themselves compared to astreas :confused: Then I looked further into the cave, and there was the HUGE b-worm heading right for the snail :eek:

We removed the lights and glass top, got a glass, a long plastic stirring spoon and the serving tongs. With the flashlight, a little yelling caused by the fear of this thing, the spoon and tongs, we GOT THAT SUCKER :2gunfire:

Now, I'm almost positive it was the b-worm that was killing the snails, but we will be vigilant and continue to watch the tank over the next few days.

The b-worm is in a glass in the sink. If I get a chance tomorrow to take pics, I'll post them. OMG, I'm so freaked that we got that close to that monster to actually get it out :eek: OMG, it's in a glass in the sink :eek: :eek: OMG :eek: OMG :eek: OMG :eek: :eek: :eek:

Quick update.....

The worm was injured and I couldn't let it slowly die in the glass overnight, so we euthanized it. Sorry, there won't be any pics :sad:

Congrats!

Just how big is "huge"?

Hey, it's a worm - not to worry. Good catch. Hope you got your culprit! :biggrin:

When not extended, the worm was only about 4.5" and .25" in width. When going for the snail, it extended to about 7", but I'm sure I saw only about half of its body.

Alan,

Don't know if we caught the culprit :confused: We weren't looking at any other part of the tank other than where the worm was. But on the other side of the cave near the back glass, where we have found a few other dead snails, I found another dead margarita this morning :frown: :cry: Don't know if that snail was there last night before we caught the worm, or if it was killed (or died on its own) sometime later in the night. So, I think we still have a bit of a mystery on our hands :confused:

Beverly, when things die, snails, clams, ect. or rather are dieing, they release chemicals that will alert other "cleaning critters" like worms, that they are doing so. this will bring out worms carnivorous snails ect to start munching on the dieing critter. I don't feel that the size of that bristle worm is you culprit, I could be wrong but it is my gut instinct.

You mentioned that the snail was a Margareta snail... have all the dead snails Margareta's or the majority of them? from personal experience I find the life of Margareta snails are very short in our tanks with the odd exception. this is mostly because they are not a tropical water snail and our tank temps are actually to high for them so they seem to die off rather fast. The slime worm Brad was talking about and that I think I have seen a few times in my tank was stretched through a mucus tunnel on the sand over a distance of 14" and he still had the majority of his body in the rock from what I could tell.

So you might have had a baby one that is just starting to be able to get snails, or you could just have a opportunistic feeder getting a meal from a dieing snail.

Steve

Glad to hear you finally caught that huge bristle worm...
but,
As far as I know Bristle Worms don't click.
makes me think something is still lurking in the shadows and dark tunnels of your rock... http://www.muiscontrols.com/ryan/icon20.gif

It is a conch for sure. Allen at J&L sold it to me for 2 bucks. It was Darren's(DJ88) last day working there. Of course nobody there knew anything about it. It has a shell like a queen but it's snout is pointed. Now I know that's for peeling snails off the glass or rocks :rolleyes: . I will keep feeding it as it's appetite is not huge.

Not yet but maybe soon.

Congrats on your catch Bev. At least I know what is killing my snails. I hate mysteries.

Steve,

Bristleworms, large and small, are oppportunistic scavenger feeders, as far as I have always understood. I agree that I may have only caught the animal that was "cleaning up" after the kill, and it sort of bothers me that I may have caught and killed an animal that might have be beneficial to my tank overall :confused: I wonder, though, why the killer would have killed the snail then left it only half eaten and out in the open in the cave. I would have imagined a mantis would have dragged the snail back to its liar. But the worm wouldn't have to, it could just partially come out of its hole to kill then feed.

Looking at the snails that have been found dead, yes, most of them have been margaritas. However, I have margaritas in my three tanks, all bought at the same time from the same lfs, and tank temps for all three are at 78-79F. The other two tanks have not experienced any margarita deaths, so I have to assume something particular to the 120g death tank is doing in the snails and the bivalve.

After reading your post, I took a look at the activity levels of the snails in the 120g, both margaritas and astreas. The margaritas are chowing down like there's no tomorrow on the algae on the glass. They are definitely more active than the astreas in that tank, which has always been the case when I've had both astreas and margaritas in the past. As well, I have never had a successive die off of margaritas in the years I've kept them in my tanks as I am having now.

So, really, I'm hoping the worm we caught last might was the killer. If not, I don't know how long it will before we discover what animal, if any, is doing in our snails :sad: I suppose only time and vigilance will tell if the b-worm was the culprit after all, or if something else is killing them, if we ever find out what the cause of their deaths is :confused:

I hope you did catch your killer, if there is one, but I have to say, I doubt it.

I had a bristleworm that was about a foot long and I don't think he was ever a snail killer (I didn't have real issues with SSDS (Sudden Snail Death Syndrome)). He did consume another organism once that was exactly his size, in its entirety. I watched him swallow it, it was like a snake eating a rat. Probably the most disgusting thing that I ever witnessed in my tank.

Bev, are all these snails that you're finding dead carcasses or empty shells? Unless the snail is consumed then I doubt you have any killer at all.

The one we found last night, along with the worm, and the one I found this morning were carcasses. The others were picked clean as far into the shell that I could see. However, the ones that were picked clean still had a "dead" smell to them when removed from the tank, so there must have been some tissue way back in the shells that I couldn't see.

I was going to say Conch as well I have 2 in my tank and they have eatten all my snails. I think I am going to cach the conches and move them to my fuge so I can get more snails

What kind of Conch :question: I have a Fighting Conch that has no interest in snails at all. BTW he is over 2.5 inches long. :eek: