snail attached to my white zoas

[ryan27272]

this little guy was attached to a stalk of one of my zoas. took some prying to get him off but took him out of the tank to be sure. i thought it was just a shell the zoa clinge to but the snail was alive so i thought bad news. any ideas?

[pagojoe]

Hmm, that looks like a type of snail that shouldn't really attach to anything, but the single view may be tricking me. It's easier if you photograph the apertural side of the shell, but I still think it's a juvenile Olive snail, either genus Oliva or Olivella. My guess would be a juvenile Oliva nitidula. If that's the case, it's primarily a scavenger, but could potentially catch and kill small prey animals, mostly small snails. If it is an Olive, it won't be eating your zoas.

http://www.gastropods.com/4/Shell_9074.html

Cheers,



Don