Killer Snail?!

[daisywb]

Hi!
I think I have a killer snail in my tank! <img src="graemlins//urrr.gif" border="0" alt="[urrr]" /> I bought 3 Turbo snails and w/in 2 weeks they were all dead. I didn't see what happened to the first two, but when I got home from work one day, I saw some new snail that I'd never seen before, eating the last Turbo snail. (Reminded me of a bad "When Animals Attack" episode)
So now I'm snailess. Is there a way to get rid of this killer snail besides tearing apart the whole tank?? I don't wanna buy new snails till I get rid of him, but I'm scared he may go after some of the crabs our the feather duster or something if he gets hungry.
Has anyone else had this happen? How'd you get rid of it?
Many thanks!
-Daisy

 

[fshhub]

well, it actually sounds like your turbo died of other reasons, and this other sanail was cleaning up, that happens alot in aquaria, especially with turbo snails, they are very popular and have the highest mortality rate of probably any crature we keep, because if they fall they cannnot get off their backs, and then drown, trochus snails do a bettr job, and can reupright themselves(they are a bit more money, maybe 2x's as much but you need less and will loose less), i have also been told that turbos hold on better if the salinity is 1.025than 23, i do not know if this is true or not, but our tank vs when we had it at 1.021 has lost less turbos, i still believe this could be sheer coincidence so do not take that as scientific
HTH

 

[daisywb]

Thanks!
I will definitely look into the trochus snails when I buy water this Friday. I'd much rather pay double for snails that'll last longer than a few weeks I don't think the water quality is bad. The tests came out ok. Guess it won't hurt to take some water in to my LFS to have it tested, just to double check.
Thank you for the info!
-Daisy

 

[daisywb]

Hi Baron!
The new snail was about 1-1.5" long and had a pinkish cone-shaped shell. My bf did some research on the web this weekend and said it matched the shells of a "whelk" (sp) snail that injects venom into other snails. The pics that we saw looked just like the one in our tank so that's why we think that it killed the turbos. I think I'm going to buy the snails fshhub suggested and see what happens! If they all die then I'll KNOW something's up.
Many thanks!
-Daisy

 

[kris walker]

If you've correctly ID'd the killer snail, then I would trade it into your LFS before getting any more snails. Don't know if you were gonna do this or not, but thought I'd just say it anyway.
kris