Conch/Snail that kills other snails?? *Pics

K

kat74

Guest
I have a 29 gallon Biocube and for some reason, I couldn't keep snails alive. I have lots of little blue legs, 1 electric blue leg, 1 scarlet reef hermit and some other type of hermit that I don't know what he is, as well as 2 different kinds of conch's. There are empty snail shells all over my tank, so there shouldn't be a reason why my hermits would want to kill a snail for their shell, unless they just "like" to kill them.

Got some new snails yesterday (4 red striped turbos and 4 nassa) and as soon as I added them to the tank, it was obvious who my snail killer is. One of my conch's went after them and got one and attached itself to it, sucking it away. I went home to grab my camera so that I could show my LFS who was doing this since they were as confused as me. Lo and behold, what happens? One of the snails started making its way down the glass and the conch charges towards it and starts to raise itself up towards it like it did the other one. I took my little bamboo skewer and blocked him and redirected the snail back upwards on the glass. I was not going to watch another snail die. Does anyone know what kind of conch this is? It's not like the other one that I have. The other one that I have is like the typical ones I have seen. This one, I've never seen before, but my LFS sold it to me as a "conch".
Snail coming down glass, conch going towards snail:

Conch starts to raise itself up:


Snail redirected... fire shrimp comes to beat up the conch


What kind of conch is that? It doesn't look like this one, the one I call my "snuffleupagus" one...


This morning I came into work and looked in my tank and saw that the "conch" had another snail, sucking the life out of him so I took a pic of it actually doing it to show my LFS because it already looked too late for me to try to save the snail. I will post pics of this later this evening when I get home and can upload them.
Can anyone offer any suggestions? What kind of "conch" is this and is this "normal" behaviour for it??

BTW, I *am* going to remove this snail killer and toss him in the 225 gallon tank in our lobby.
 
m0nk

m0nk

Active Member
Looks kinda like a fighting conch to me. I've heard they'll only really "fight" other fighting conchs, but maybe this one is an exception? They should only be detritus and algae eaters tho...
 
K

kat74

Guest
Originally Posted by m0nk
Looks kinda like a fighting conch to me. I've heard they'll only really "fight" other fighting conchs, but maybe this one is an exception? They should only be detritus and algae eaters tho...
Well, this one must have gone totally psycho because he seems to actually "hunt" snails!
 
teresaq

teresaq

Active Member
we call the something like kings crown. My kids did a field trip to the local beach, and collected them for research. I witnesed one eating either a star fish or a shrimp. They are preditors.
 
J

jrthomas40

Guest
there are snails that actually hunt others...in port st joe florida in my marine animal behavior class my professor as a snail guy and actually showed us a conch similar to that one (dont remember the name) it came out of the sand after a snail slid past it and jump on its snail trail to catch it faster then jumped on top of it...it was actually pretty cool
 
K

kat74

Guest
Wow, thanks for the help and info, everyone!~

I'm still going to post the pictures that I took this morning of the snail sucking the life out of the other one.
I'm happy to say that the predator is now in our 225 gallon tank in the lobby where as soon as he hit the bottom, the green bird wrasse started to check him out and pecked on him, soooo I'm betting that the snail is gonna get a little taste of his own medicine!
 
stdreb27

stdreb27

Active Member
Originally Posted by KAT74
Wow, thanks for the help and info, everyone!~

I'm still going to post the pictures that I took this morning of the snail sucking the life out of the other one.
I'm happy to say that the predator is now in our 225 gallon tank in the lobby where as soon as he hit the bottom, the green bird wrasse started to check him out and pecked on him, soooo I'm betting that the snail is gonna get a little taste of his own medicine!

That is pretty neat, nice pictures.
That wrasse is going to love your evil snail.
 
K

kat74

Guest
Originally Posted by TeresaQ
Melongena corona aka kings crown conch. I googled it
YOU, my dear, are awesome!! That is EXACTLY what it is!!
I read this up on it from Bob Fenner:
the Crown Conch (Melongena corona). These gastropods are carnivorous…and while they would do a good job cleaning up dead/dying animals and leftover meaty foodstuffs, they will also prey on your other snails, substrate biota, and possibly sessile invertebrates as they will surely not get enough to eat as they grow too large for your system
Crazy, crazy serial snail killer ....
 
K

kat74

Guest
Pictures from this morning's feast... Sorry that it's hard to see what's going on, but I tried my best to take pics from an angle at the very back of my tank. You should see the conch's "something" sucked onto the inside of the snail where you only see the snail shell.

 
K

kat74

Guest
Originally Posted by stdreb27
You have living snails in a tank with a fairy bird wrasse?
No. My 29g reef tank has the snails and the conch. I removed the killer conch and put him in the 225g FOWLR tank in our lobby. That tank has the green bird wrasse in it, and well, if he eats the killer conch.... I won't be mad at all.
 
natclanwy

natclanwy

Active Member
It is definently a Crown Conch but they are actually a Whelk not a Conch, All Conchs are vegitarian but whelk on the other hand are preditors and scavengers. I found an excellent article that explained very well how to tell the difference between Conchs and Whelks if I can find it I will post it.
By the way they will kill every snail in your tank I know from experience. Much better off in a different tank mine ended up in the sump until it decided to crawl into the intake of my return pump, wasn't upset about losing that one at all it was sold to me as an algae eater but ended up killing about $30-$40 in snails before I caught on and removed it.
 
K

kat74

Guest
Originally Posted by natclanwy
Here is the link I hope I am not breaking any rules with this link.
Whelk VS Conch ID
Wow. I read that. Thanks so much for sharing. I kept buying snails, all kinds, turbos, astrea, cerith, nassa, and couldn't understand why they kept dying. I initially blamed my little dwarf blue legs because most of them are now wearing nassa shells. I never would have thought it would be the "conch" that's actually a whelk, until I saw it myself.
Now I have to re-stock my snails again!
 
ninjamini

ninjamini

Active Member
Originally Posted by KAT74
Wow. I read that. Thanks so much for sharing. I kept buying snails, all kinds, turbos, astrea, cerith, nassa, and couldn't understand why they kept dying. I initially blamed my little dwarf blue legs because most of them are now wearing nassa shells. I never would have thought it would be the "conch" that's actually a whelk, until I saw it myself.
Now I have to re-stock my snails again!

Will a six line do the same thing?
 
K

kat74

Guest
Originally Posted by ninjamini
Will a six line do the same thing?
I had a sixline and never saw it harm anything in my tank. Never picked at anything. Was a very peaceful fish. I don't think that they will kill snails.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top