big snail growing babys on it???

[Kostas]

Ok so I’ve had this snail for almost two years now, it’s quite big. I’ve never paid much attention to it, mostly move around the tank at night, but the other day I couldn’t help notice that what seems like a baby snail on the top tip of him has its weird long black mouth of its own!
and after watching him for two hours (slow night for ok hahah) i've saw a total of four black things three others on the back of him.

Now in this frist photo you see the snail and its mouth is the larger circle item that is striped brown and white which seems to be its mouth since i've seen it eat and gaze on the walls of my tank…

-Also that baby shell on the snail with the black thing coming out of, moves a little size to side, but still very firmly attached to the main guy i have pushed on it and seen white all around the sides of it

Now the smaller black thing that I have circles (bad pic, I have very cool videos of it extending almost 2inchs for it to eat)I’ve seen a total of four long black things that come out almost all around the smail which I'm guessing is more baby mouths?
now I’m going to have to take more pics – quite weird and VERY interesting no?



This photo is from the back side showing another black mouth? i've seen three come out in total in the back at once. its sooo weird/cool







I don’t even know what kind of snail this is.

[The-new-guy]

I have read somewhere that there are small " evil " snails that can attach to our good snails ( around the fleshy base of the shell ) and attach to the host and feed off it.

I have no idea what these snail are called or if this is what you have, I just remember reading it in a thread somewhere on some board.

Iam sure someone here will have better info than I can provide on this topic, good luck!

[Marlin65]

Those are white that feed on mollusks, but they look the same. I would take them out if you have clams. Being they are near the base. The other two flat ones on there are OK.

[TJSlayer]

I think they are limpets, and are ok.....but I could be mistaken...

[mike31154]

Neato, I have a snail with one of these little hitchhikers as well. Was never sure whether it was part of the big guy or a separate animal. It's also located near the base of the host snail and has black flesh from what I can see. I've had the snail for some time and it doesn't seem to be suffering any ill effects, in fact it's grown quite a bit.

[justinl]

the parasitic snails you're thinking of are called whelks. they look a bit like nassarius snails.

the attached snails from the OP's tank are called slipper snails. harmless. they're just hitching a ride on the bigger guy.