small snails, good vs. bad

[H20Sidhe]

Ever since the beginning of my reefing (1995ish) my tanks have had a population of small snails that only come out at night & eat algae. I've never been concerned about them. Recently a friend was looking at my tank & mentioned they look like a predator. I got concerned & did some research. I re-confirmed that what I have is OK, but thought I would share what I found out. The snails I have are Collonista amakusaensis. The snail to worry about is Heliacus areola (sundial snail). They eat zoanthids. I am attaching a couple of link with pictures of these gastropods as well as others including a zoanthid-eating nudi.

http://melevsreef.com/id/snails.html

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=5245201#post5245201

Enjoy!

[Sparkss]

There are a couple of threads about the sundials.. there was even a recent one from someone asking for them, and offerring to pay for shipping (he had a zoa colony that was "out of control" and needed some natural predation to clear it out of his tank).

But good information to pass along none the less :). Especially since there are alot of Zoa collectors in the Sac area :D

[bkmorris]

ah good news :) shows you how much i know :D hehe.

[H20Sidhe]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8976104#post8976104 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Sparkss
Especially since there are alot of Zoa collectors in the Sac area :D

And we do a lot of nice trading, and some people don't see the need to quarantine! :D :D

[boviac]

I picked up some sweet pink zoas after the spring event here from that cool overflowing tank. Anyway, I got home, acclimated, and in they went. Next day I decided to switch things around. While I had the zoa colony out of water and it began to close up, I found one of these sundial guys in the middle of the colony. Took him out and kept the shell for reference. Whew...

- Chris