wild harvest snails safe?

[likefish]

I am in the keys on vacation and have reviewed the rules and regulations for harvesting snails.

I have been looking around and found lots of critters and lots of variety.

My concern is quarantine. Do wild harvest snails have potential parasites or other bad ju-ju associated with them?

Here is what i am finding.

1)
http://i1262.photobucket.com/albums/ii602/like-fish1/IMAG0465.jpg


2)
http://i1262.photobucket.com/albums/ii602/like-fish1/IMAG0473.jpg

3)
http://i1262.photobucket.com/albums/ii602/like-fish1/IMAG0472.jpg

4)
http://i1262.photobucket.com/albums/ii602/like-fish1/IMAG0469.jpg

5)
http://i1262.photobucket.com/albums/ii602/like-fish1/IMAG0461.jpg

6)
http://i1262.photobucket.com/albums/ii602/like-fish1/IMAG0474.jpg

thank you for any advice and ID confirmation! Warnings and suggestions appreciated as well!

They will be going into my 2 month old 120 reef tank as the start of my clean up crew. Plenty of diatoms to chew on.

[donya]

My concern is quarantine. Do wild harvest snails have potential parasites or other bad ju-ju associated with them?

I'm not familiar off-hand with most of the species in your pictures, but the vast majority of marine inverts you would buy at a pet store are wild-caught too, including things like Turbinid snails and Cerithiids. So, the risks are basically the same as what you would get when buying from a store, where even the captive-bred options are usually placed in the same water as the wild stock.

In general, snail diseases/parasites aren't a big concern for marine aquarists, but that's not to say there is zero risk of anything. For example, in my area there is supposedly a swimmers itch problem with some of the whelks, although I have never encountered it myself, despite having collected quite a few for native biotope tanks. Of course, if you found one of those whelks in a store, the same issue would still exist.

[rssjsb]

The first pic looks like a nerite and the last like ceriths. The others I don't know, but they look like whelks, which can be predatory on other snails.

Nerites are safe, but intertidal species will sometimes crawl out of your tank.

[Khemul]

1 is a Nerite. Those are EXTREMELY common. Just look for an area with lots of rocks at the tide line and the rocks should be crawling with them. They do okay in a tank, but don't surprised if you spend a short time picking them up off the floor and returning them to the tank. It takes them a little while to learn there are no tides in an aquarium.

3 are also extremely common but not as noticeable since they live in the sand. Pretty sure they are Nassarius snails, or a relative. They behave the same and seem safe in my experience.

4 are very common where the rocks stick out of the water. They don't seem to do any harm in an aquarium, but keeping them IN the aquarium is a pain. They seem to prefer to find a high spot out of the water (even worse then Nerites, since these don't stop at what they think is the high tide mark).

[dzhuo]

Here are my guesses:

1. Nerita versicolor.
2. Not sure. It's hard to see.
3. Engina sp. probably an Engina turbinella.
4. Echinolittorina sp. probably an Echinolittorina angustior.
5. Cenchritis sp. probably a Cenchritis muricata (just a guess)
6. Cerithium lutosum.

As for whether it's safe to keep wild caught snails, I think you don't run any greater risk then using live rock.

[EricShane]

4 is beautiful

[pagojoe]

All of your snails are safe for the aquarium. They are either nerites, littorinids, or ceriths, with the exception of the turbinid in the second pic.

Cheers,



Don