Snail Graveyard
 

Every couple of mornings, I find another dead snail in a specific spot in a well traveled throughfare under the LR in my 120g. Fish and corals are doing well in this tank and the snails appear to be active and thriving, except for this one spot. Nitrate is 10 ppm and water changes and other maintenance is done weekly.

I think something living in the rock might be killing them :eek: :evil: :cry: I have a 4" well-fed blue sided wrasse in the tank as well as a Brazilian flameback dwarf angel (Centropyge aurantonotus). Neither one has been seen harrassing the snails during the day.

This morning I found a dead bivalve I didn't know I had in that same spot. Any ideas what might be killing my snails?

? Mantis

hear any clicking noises?

mantis like to find/build a hole in the rock and then they stick close to their little nest. They will even bring their meals back to the nest and then leave shells on the front porch (so to speak)

I've got clicking, but it's from an acro shrimp in a different tank. Haven't heard clicking in the 120g at all, unless I've not been listening closely enough :eek: A chromis and blue sided wrasse sleep in the rock near the snail graveyard. If it was a mantis, wouldn't it go for the fish first?

Any recent additions of LR , maybe with a hitchhiker ? Price of snails that really sucks :confused:

I maintain they are all suicidal.

Figi Rock?, I had a monster worm living in a rock in the back of my tank, when I broke down my tank for sale, it too was like a snail greaveyard in the rear corner.

I only saw this thing once, and it was at night when I put a flashlight on the tank, it stretched across the whole tank, no word of a lie it was probably 24" long and was still embedded in the rock in the rear corner, it had 2 antannas, after doing a bit of research, it turned out to be the same worm that Steve Weast (Reef Central) had in his tank, except his was about 6 feet long maybe more can't remember, his worm was eating softies too and was living in the plumbing.

I hope you don't have this worm cause there hard to find, when I was removing my rock for sale of the tank, it was partially hanging out a large piece of figi rock in the rear corner, the person who bought the tank wanted the rock & the worm & I was more than willing to let him have it.

Watch out for the Dog!

:lol:
:eek:

I'm also going to guess a worm. Are the snails covered in slime at all? I had a 2 foot worm that would drag snails back to the same spot once or twice a week. I got really suspicious whenI found 2 in the same night. Nasty worm!!

Put in some new Fiji rock about 2 months ago, problem only began about 2 weeks ago, though. Freaking scary about the worms you guys are describing :eek:

I set a trap just now with mysis as bait. A medium sized bristleworm poked its head out briefly. Must have seen the blue sided wrasse coming to inspect the rest of his supper because it disappeared real quick :razz:

Wrasses will eat bristle and other worms, right?

Anyway, the wrasse has been very persistent with the trap and has managed to move it :eek: Will let you know if I catch anything (besides the wrasse :evil: )

Creepy :eek: . Keep us updated!

-Richer

Brad,

No slime on the snails. What did you do with your worm to get rid of it?

Don't know that I ever did. I took the rock out, socked it in club soda, (it was 35# rock), I smashed it into about 5 chunks, put it in a smaller tank to keep the worm out of my tank, and may have eventually given it to Steve! I never did catch it.
I set a trap one night with a small glass tube. It dragged the tube back to it's lair, about 10" away! The name starts with an O, can't recall at the moment!

The tank had been set up for a year & half before I noticed the worm, must have been living in the rock from day one, never bothered any of my clams or acros, but come to think of it, I did have a blue linkia go missing along with a couple of fish & of course snails here & there.

Must of had plenty to eat, if it does turn out to be a big honkin worm, try to figure out what rock it's living in then remove the rock, I was told to pour carbonated water over the hole where it lived & it would probably leave the rock.

I only saw the one in my tank once, it was brownish, with orange/reddish bands running alonside its body with 2 antenae & lightening fast, when I shone the light on it it retreated instantly back to the rock.

Beleive the name is Oenone Fulgida, Dr. Ron Shimek wrote about it in 4 Marine Fish & Reef 2004 Annual.

Possible Oenone Fulgida. Have pincher like jaws and feed on snails and clams. They are nocturnal and can be 2 feet or longer. Just like Brad said, need to find the rock, remove it and use carbonated water or hypersaline water. Need to get the whole body as thwey can regenerate if broken. Just a thought :confused:

Yup, that's the one.

he gave it to me :rolleyes: although I cannot pin a snail death on my tank on it but I have seen it. big ugly didn't sleep for 3 days :mrgreen:

Steve

A worm with insomnia? :razz:

Steve, that big bristle worm isn't the same worm. Mine was thin and smooth.

Oh, good :confused: Just set up three new tanks and have taken down two of them already to fix various problems. Now I gotta take down the third tank for some freaking scary worm :evil: Will be on the look out for this sucker for sure :2gunfire:

Bev, the worm we're talking about wraps the snail in a slimey mucous. If you don't have slimey snail shells, you likely don't have this worm.

Brad,

How long does the mucous stay on the shell? I leave the shells in the tank for a few days before removing them because they're in a hard to get at place. Maybe they have mucous, but it goes away before I get the shells out.

I'm hoping it's some kind of crab that will take the bait I've set out. Most crabs are relatively easy to catch ime.

oh, hmm was that the one that I had the pics of it streached across the tank trying to get the krill out of my brain? made the slime tunnel accross the sand. redish about 3 to 5mm accross and segmented?

Steve

About an hour after lights out, I took the flashlight to the dead snail tank. Found an itty bitty light coloured crab, about 5mm across its back, about 2" from the mouth of the trap. As well, at the other end of the tank, found a large hairy legged crab with black claw tips. Inside the trap were flying bugs, two or three about 2mm long and white, and one large dark one about 4mm long. I've seen the large dark one before and had it IDed by Dr. Ron at RC as a harmless detrivore. All in all, a pretty exciting evening :razz:

This morning, though, I got quite a haul out of the trap. TWO crabs, one a 2.5cm across the back red eyed crab and the other a 1cm across the back crab that had become a midnight snack for the larger one. Have had red eyed crabs before and didn't have a dead snail problem though.

Also this morning, the bivalve shell is missing and the two dead snail shells that were there for the past few days have been moved.

Chris says he just heard some clicking in from that tank :eek: So, going on the premise that there's a mantis in there, how do I catch it?

are the snail shells cracked? that is usaly a tell tail sign for a mantis.

Steve

Steve,

Not cracked and not slimey, either. Maybe Chris heard the acro shrimp from the other tank, which also clicks. But if it was a mantis, how would I catch it?

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I any of you have a picture of this worm I'd like to see if it resembles one that is living in my tank. No mishaps yet but sure is an ugly thing.

Bev,

I found a few links you can check out...
The last link is mostly just info about them though.
HTH :biggrin:

http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaver...tisShrimp.html

http://www.blueboard.com/mantis/pest/catch.htm

http://www.togar.de/English/aqua/mantis_shrimp.htm

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Those Mantis shrimp are freeeeky

Thanks, muck :cool:

So from the reading, a small jar covered with plastic wrap isn't going to do it :confused: The two L bottle traps sound like an engineering degree is a prerequisite :eek: Gotta think this whole thing over...

Thanks again :smile:

It doesn't have to be hard... :biggrin:
If you cut a bottle like shown below its super easy!
(Any kind of plastic bottle will do.)
Good Luck!!


http://www.seahorse.org/library/arti...raybottle5.gif

How does the shrimp not climb back out of the hole with that design?

Too stupid?

9 times out of 10 they will not be able to figure it out.

Like a minnow trap. Even when there's 50 of them in there, they still can't get their act together and escape. :cool:

Okay! Sounds like a plan, then :cool: Just gotta make sure I set the trap after lights out so the wrasse doesn't get caught :lol:

worm pictures

http://www.oregonreef.com/sub_worm.htm

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:crazyeye: :eek: So how are ya gonna sleep now Bev ? :wink: Hope this is not the case :confused: