Please help identify this critter... Snails   10/8/08 Hello crew! I was wondering if someone might have a look at these photos to identify these snails. My LFS told me that it was unrecognizable <?> and that I should try to remove them... they are multiplying like crazy! They really only come out after the halides turn off and vary in size. Most are grayish white, but some are black. They Jason <Look to me to be Trochids... look up the genus Stomatella... mostly beneficial... Can be "picked off" by some crustaceans, Labrids... Bob Fenner>

If I could bother you or one of the other crew members with a snail and parasite, ID,  9/27/08 Thanks, Bob!!! <Welcome> If I could bother you or one of the other crew members with a snail and parasite, ID, I'd appreciate it. I have gone through all the snail ID pictures and descriptions on all the 17 plus pages and of course, like most people, no one has a snail "just like mine". I had it narrowed down to the three most common ones people ask to have ID'd, Nerite, Collonista and baby Turbo, but I went through that site you have linked that shows all of the shells of those and I could find a few that were similar, but, of course, none "just like mine". They are primarily nocturnal but do appear during the day. I find them every where. On the glass. On the rocks. And on the corals, especially Zoas and leathers. I've even found some under the microscope in water samples that I couldn't see with the naked eye. It does have a pattern similar to a sundial but it has a smooth shell and doesn't have the pagoda shaped operculum. They also appear to have calcareous egg shells on the rocks but they are not round or sesame seed shaped, they are more like a pentagon. <I don't see these in my ref. works either. Am sending your query to friend and "shell nut" Marty Beals of Tideline for his input> The parasites I got off of a small piece of Acropora and Kenya Tree that I was given by a friend that I had in quarantine. <Mmm, don't consider these parasites... other than "space"... perhaps predators... Am pretty sure these are Ostracods> They were both fine for about 3 weeks and then the Acropora went in less than 3 days. It started losing tissue at the base and went right up to the tip. The Kenya Tree started throwing off it's own branches but is still doing okay in quarantine. Since the Acropora was already lost, I did a dip in Iodine and all that came off were these little critters. I dipped one of the branches of Kenya Tree and found the same thing. One picture is magnified at 40 times, the other is at 100 times. You can barely see the critter with the naked eye. It looks like a flea with shorter legs. Iodine dip doesn't seem to kill the critters. They were even alive after a day in RO/DI water. You know microscopes are addictive when you have a reef tank. <Ah yes> Once you think you've seen everything in your reef tank, you are sadly mistaken until you've seen it under a microscope. Thanks Everybody!!!!! <I don't think these small crustaceans were/are the root of the Cnidarians health issues. Bob Fenner>

Re: Circles of Ribbon-Like Sand: Likely Egg Collar - 9/9/08 <Hi Gerry> Yes, I believe that I have. <Mystery solved!> Thanks, you have been a great help. Gerry <You're very welcome Gerry, it was my pleasure. Take care, -Lynn>