Pyramellid snails

[tomterreefic]

Is Murphy out and about again? I bragged about my clams yesterday and then today I notice these tiny white snails around the mantle of my Maxima clam and he's not opening up as much as he used to. I think they are pyramellid (?) snails. Or at least they fit the description. Anybody ever had winning battles with these pests?

[dvmsn]

I have fought the battle and lost the war. My pyrmellids also attacked a maxima. They didn't seem to bother any of my other croceas. I have read that a sixline wrasse will control these snails but I am pretty suspicious about this claim as they seem to be mostly nocturnal. I tried to manually remove them but they kept coming back. If you have another tank that you can keep him in I would remove him from that tank, if he is attached to a rock, remove him from the rock by cutting the bysal threads with a razor blade. Really go over him with a fine toothed comb. They like to concentrate at the bysal foot and and uder the lip of the shell where the mantle meets the shell.

[tomterreefic]

Thanks for the info Dave. So far the only clam that I have seen them on is my Maxima. And they are all congregating at the mantle lip. I have 2 Six line Wrasses and have seen them swim just under the mantle letting the mantle rub their backs. Maybe they're on the prowl. Anyway, I guess it's time for clam scrubbing until I can set-up a QT tank.
Who said this hobby was relaxing?

[mcox33]

If you don't get them off of the clam they will kill it. They killed mine.

[dvmsn]

If you can quarantine him I think its the only way to be successful. I think they crawl down on the rocks as well.

[tomterreefic]

I'm not 100% certain that these things are pyramellid snails. Sorry, I've been too lazy to take a picture. I scrubbed about 20 of these little white snails off of my Maxima and found 2 on one of my Crocea. Their shell shape looks alot like a Cerith, but I don't know the difference. I've been searching every night and seen no more. I have a bunch of Cerith snails in the tank and they have been laying eggs like crazy. I didn't find any jelly egg sacks on the clams when I scrubbed, but my Maxima seemed to open better the day after the scrubbing. I'll see if I can get a pic this weekend.

[dvmsn]

They are really small and look like a grain of rice.

[Reefn00b]

I got this from sniffing around google


the little specks are the culprit

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-10/sp/feature/images/pyram2sm.jpg

[tomterreefic]

That's definately not what I was looking at. Maybe I'm just jumpy. I'll look the clams over again when I get home this weekend.
Thanks for the info.

[dvmsn]

It is not the white specks on the shell but the white pieces in the crack closest to the mantle.