ID pink snails please

[Ebn]

Just found a bit more than a dozen of these little guys. They're no bigger than 1mm across at the moment, but love the way they look.

Anyone have any idea of what they are?

http://ericdo.com/pictures/Ocean%20Free/D2X_7082.jpg

[Ebn]

Caught one near the front of the glass.
http://ericdo.com/pictures/Ocean%20Free/D2X_7085.jpg

[KMP]

never seen that - cool!

[pagojoe]

Beautiful snails! At that size, it's really difficult to say for sure what they will look like when they grow up. Someone will probably tell you they are Collonista snails, but I think they are not. I'll go out on a limb and say there's at least a 50% chance those are Stomatella babies, but they may very well be a species that is different from the ones normally found in reef tanks (i.e., not Stomatella varia or Stomatella impertusa).

Cheers,



Don

[Opcn]

Beautiful color,I do hope that if they turn out to be good snails that you offer a few babies to project dibs.

[Ebn]

Don, I do think that I'll have to grow them out to a larger size to see what they turn out to be. I have some breeding Stomatella in the tank as well, but the babies on those are quite different. These little pink guys have full size shells vs. the smaller ones from the Stomatellas that I've seen in the tank.

Opcn, hopefully they're good snails for the tank. I don't have any adults of these guys so can't really tell at the moment (only adult Stomatella sp. and Astreas in the tank). If they do turn out to be good for the tank and I can get them to reproduce, I'll definitely distribute them to others.

[pagojoe]

Great, I'm sure that these are snails that would be considered beneficial, since they almost certainly belong to the family Trochidae, and I'm betting subfamily Stomatellinae. Most of the snails in this subfamily are more like typical trochids than Stomatella varia and S. impertusa. Not nearly all the species in Stomatellinae are shown on gastropods.com, of course, but there are several for you to use for comparison. Try to ignore the overall shell shape, and look at only the nuclear whorls for comparison to yours:

http://www.gastropods.com/Taxon_pages/TN_Family_TROCHIDAE_STOMATELLINAE.html

Also, understand that the species are somewhat mixed up, with several Stomatella varia pics included on the Stomatella impertusa page.

Look at the one that's third from the bottom on this page:

http://www.gastropods.com/4/Shell_2424.html

then compare it to the photos of Pseudostomatella papyracea (considering that these may also be red or pink in color):

http://www.gastropods.com/0/Shell_2420.html

Cheers,



Don

[Ebn]

Don,

It definitely looks very similar to Pseudotomatella papyracea or perhaps even Stomatolina danblumi.

http://www.gastropods.com/6/Shell_15146.html

Is there a way to tell the difference between the two? I see that S. danblumi has a lower profile on the shell, but without both of them to compare it's hard to tell.

[pagojoe]

Hi Eric,

Traditionally, Stomatolina danblumi would probably have been lumped under the name Stomatella papyracea. It may very well be that "Stomatella" papyracea should be moved to the genus Stomatolina, as the generic names are in a constant state of flux. However, someone had some pretty good evidence that S. danblumi looked to be a separate species or they probably wouldn't have named it. I agree that your shells look very much like that species, and there are a couple others that have almost exactly the shape and sculpture of your snails (at least the one in the photo that shows the sculpture so clearly). Color can be a very poor identifying characteristic in this family, and particularly in this subfamily, with shells in the same populations ranging from black to white and with red, yellow, green, and brown variants, and they may be solid colored, "flamed" or blotched, or striped! All the Stomatella species have comparatively large animals, but most aren't as out of proportion as S. varia, S. impertusa, or S. planata. It will be really interesting to see what your snails look like in a few months. Keep us posted.

Cheers,



Don

[Ebn]

Thanks, Don. I'll keep this post updated as they get larger.