a worm killed my turbo snail

roadie996

roadie996

Member
I don't know what it is, but 2 worms ate my turbo from the inside out. I started getting a cyano outbreak and noticed that it had not moved in a few days... As I picked it up, I noticed something squiggly coming out from the center of the hard protective foot. I thought it was very strange, so I sat there and watched for a minute and a worm crawled out... A WORM?!?!?

It was half black, half orange. Well, both were. And when disturbed it would curl up like a centipede. I have pictures, but the internet was down at my house, so I will have to upload them later.
Any guesses for now?!
 
roadie996

roadie996

Member
aaahhhh noooo!!!!! I hope those were the only two!! I bought 2 turbo from a LFS and it was one of them. The other 3 were/are healthy... for now
 
roadie996

roadie996

Member
30 gallon, (currently) 4 mexican turbos and 4 margaritas, too much algae... now that they've been decimating the current bloom (which is not close to being gone), hair algae is starting to bloom. I can't win!
 
roadie996

roadie996

Member
I've never had or seen these worms before in my tank. Its been running for over 2 years, live rock has been in there for about 18 months that came out of an established tank from a LFS. I had 3 turbo's in there for about 3-4 weeks without problems. Then purchased the new set of snails and then I have these worms! Is it possible they hitch-hiked?
 
renogaw

renogaw

Active Member
nah, they've been there. bristle worms are beneficial night cleanup crew hitchikers.
mexican's are monster algae eaters, and most will starve in our tanks. if you've got hair algae they will help with it.
if it helps, i've never had more than one mexican in my 90, and they've never lasted more than a few months.
 
cranberry

cranberry

Active Member
K, I'm going to come on and do my margarita snail spiel.
Margarita snails are a cold water snail. I can't even say the stores in my area on unaware of it and sell them in ignorance, because they are informed.
They don't necessarily die immediately but can have slow deaths.
My spiel has gotten shorter over the years.
The snails were dead (or dying) when the worms ate them... no doubt. They are scavengers not predators. Now there are a few bad apples in the worm world, but most are not common and what you are describing is indeed common.
 
cranberry

cranberry

Active Member
Yes, I know... that's why I called it a spiel because you weren't actually asking for advice on it. But I thought maybe you would care that you have a coldwater snail in your warm water tank.

Margaritas are an active snail right now because their metabolisms are probably higher than it's ever been with the heat. They don't do that much moving around in their natural environment.
 
cranberry

cranberry

Active Member
I had one live for awhile. There's nothing you can do. They can't be returned to the sea. I just don't know why the stores still get them in.
 
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