What Killed My Snail? with pic - Page 2

Aquattro · #1 04-07-2005, 06:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andestang

Its probably a Oenone Fulgida worm.

Exactly!! I had one of these, killed snails a couple of times a week. Slimey jelly coating all over the empty shells. I never caught it, tried dipping the rock in soda water, broke the rock into 5 pieces, ended up getting rid of it.

These worms actually burrow under the sand in tunnels of slime they create. Mine was about 2 feet long....

Beverly · #2 04-07-2005, 06:14 PM

Brad,

Mine will be in rock as we have no sandbeds.

Do you think my kalk/RO/tankwater concoction will do an good? Should probably put a small powerhead in there to get good circulation throughout the rock. Maybe even heat the stuff up to 85F or so, too? Could even make the mix 1 part tankwater, 2 parts RO/kalk, but risk to the corals is even higher.

Thoughts?

muck · #3 04-07-2005, 06:26 PM

Why don't you try pouring club soda into the suspected burrow first. Hopefully that will flush it out and not do any damage to your mushrooms and button polpys.

Quote:

Oenone fulgida are not too hard to remove from a system, but it takes diligence. They most often live in burrows in rock, and enter aquaria in uncured rocks, and being nocturnal, the hobbyist has to search for them in the middle of the night. Using a red flashlight is best, as they will rapidly withdraw in the beam of a normal flashlight. They will appear as long worms stretched out and over the rocks. Once an Oenone individual is presumed to be living in a tank, the hobbyist must watch it withdraw in order to see where its burrow is found. After the rock with the burrow is located, the rock must be removed and the animal flushed from its burrow using a flood of carbonated water (soda pop works well). The worm is then discarded, and the rock replaced in the aquarium.

Aquattro · #4 04-07-2005, 06:29 PM

Well, a bucket of soda water didn't bring mine out, so I'm not sure what will. If it was my rock, I'd take off what I wanted to keep, and toss the rock. I lost a lot of sleep trying to catch mine. He lived in a rock also, but would extend out about 18" to grab snails and pull them back to the lair....

Beverly · #5 04-07-2005, 08:42 PM

Brad,

Sounds like a good plan if I knew which freaking rock the worm lived in

How long did you soak your worm rock in soda water?

SeaHorse_Fanatic · #6 04-07-2005, 08:51 PM

Bev,

If I lived in Edmonton, I'd volunteer to watch your tank for you since I'm usually up till past 2am working on the computer anyways. Good luck. Remember, no mercy. Kill the b@st@rd worm.

Maybe even try baiting a stocking/netting trap with a couple of snails. Remove all the remaining snails from the tank & after a couple of days of hunger, place one or two inside a ball of stocking/netting & see if the worm entangles itself in it.

Good luck & happy hunting.

Anthony

Beverly · #7 04-07-2005, 08:59 PM

Anthony,

Definitely will kill the thing if it comes out of the rock

Would love to catch all the snails in the tank, but there are over 60 of them (remaining

) in a 120g. Gonna be too hard to catch them all, though. And only have a 37g up and running to put them in.

Got the kalk/RO mix already heated. Am ready for Chris to walk in the door pretty soon, so we'll be at it for awhile. Hope that evil monster snail slimer comes out is all I can say

mark · #8 04-07-2005, 09:03 PM

Wondering if bigger version of what I got. Haven't noticed slime but will go after snails and had a couple fatalities. Rather than reposting pictures here's a link:
http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.ph...899&highlight=

SeaShell · #9 04-07-2005, 10:13 PM

Hi guys, I'm new here but read about the eaten snail problem and thought I'd pass along my experience!

Snails kept disappearing in my tank. I'd find the shells, no body in them, and NO slime.

Years ago I had purchased what I called a "horney snail" his shell was kind of oblong and he had sharp spiky horns all over him.

He had an offspring, it turns out this type of snail eats other snails and as soon as I realized what was going on, I called the offspring "Son of Snail". I caught Son of Snail attached to my other snails more than once but didn't think twice about it.

I removed them both a few weeks ago and I've not had one death since.

Hope that adds another dimension to the problem!

muck · #10 04-07-2005, 10:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeaShell

Hi guys, I'm new here but read about the eaten snail problem and thought I'd pass along my experience!

Snails kept disappearing in my tank. I'd find the shells, no body in them, and NO slime.

Years ago I had purchased what I called a "horney snail" his shell was kind of oblong and he had sharp spiky horns all over him.

He had an offspring, it turns out this type of snail eats other snails and as soon as I realized what was going on, I called the offspring "Son of Snail". I caught Son of Snail attached to my other snails more than once but didn't think twice about it.

I removed them both a few weeks ago and I've not had one death since.

Hope that adds another dimension to the problem!

Welcome to the board Seashell!!

Sounds like you had an experience with a whelk. They are often mislabeled as a conch.