Pyramid snails

[marvida]

Pyramids were briefly mentioned in an earlier thread so I thought I might elaborate on these little vampires. Most of this information and photos should be credited to Daniel Knop.
Pyramidellidae snails are very small (6mm max) parasitic snails which feed on the lymphatic fluid of other snails and clams. In most cases Turbonilla species are the ones we will encounter. Pyramids become a problem in our aquariums due to the lack of natural predators like small fishes of the family Labridae. The reproductive cycle only takes two weeks. Sexual maturity is reached in 40-50 days and the life span is about 4-5 months.
Six line wrasses are used with some success in controlling them but the snail is nocturnal and the fish is not. During the day Pyramids hide in the sand or under the mantle of clams. I have seen as many as eight hanging onto turbo snails. Catching them while the lights are out is going to be your best shot. Another measure checking a pyramid threat is to interupt the reproductive cycle of the snails, preferably by removing the planktonic larvae with the help on a powerful skimmer in connection with UV light disinfection. The good news is that it takes a lot of these little guys to do much damage. If you watch out for them, particularly around juvenile clams, they are a controllable threat.

 

[bdhough]

You know i have those snails. They prey on other snails? I usually see them lights going out or coming on. They usually have specs of sand on them like they came out of it. I also see them eating algae on the glass. BUT i've never seen them trying to eat another snail nor have i noticed a reduction in my snail population..... What kind of turbos? Astrea or Mexican? Or...?
I have a sundial snail which eats zooanthids. He killed the 4 i had before i knew what he was....

 

[marvida]

I've seen then on both Mexican and Astreas. In order for them to make much of an impact the snail would probably have to be weakened. I've lost a couple of snails that were at least finished off by these things, but were probably not the primary cause. The big Mexican turbo I took the eight off of died the next day. I took onre off of my Maxima last week and found an egg mass on the underside of the clam's shell.

 

[bdhough]

Interesting. I wonder if I have the tamer ones. I've never seen one of the pyramids bigger than a mm or 2. You said 6mm which is quite big.... None of mine seem to be growing in size but i think they may be growing in quantity a bit if VERY slowly.

 

[oregonbud]

Thanks for the info Ken, it's appreciated.
I am not too overly concerned with removing these guys yet, just because I don't have any clams (and likely won't for at least 6 more months) seems strange though because nearly everything I have read says they feed on snail blood and clams, I only have one turbo snail in my tank, and no clams, so it makes me wonder what these guys are feeding off of - it seems to me that they would have offed my snail by now if they were hungry - do you know if there is a more passive species as bdhough was saying?
Thanks OB

 

[shanev]

Those shells almost look like small cerith shells to me. I dont have any experience with pyramid snails, but I heard they are so small they look like grains of rice. I also thought the shell is shaped more like a pyramid?
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