Snail ID please: Pest or Friend?

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#1
I have hundreds of these guys in my tank most of which are only 1-2mm in size. This is the biggest one I have found so far. I am 99% sure the lil' ones are eating coralline. They are active during the day but its at night I see most of them. Cleaned about a 100 of them out tonite, thats when I found the big guy. I have about 150 Zoa polyps in my tank and havent noticed a huge decrease, but growth has slowed somewhat too.

ID?



Thank you. :mad:
 

EyeReef

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#2
They look like Collonista Snails. Common beneficial grazers

Collonista [Link 1, 2] (Figure 10)
Collonista are "mini-Turbo snails." They are seldom purchased by hobbyists, but are relatively common in reef tanks anyway, because they appear to hitchhike in on live rock or in some live sand. When hobbyists first see them, they presume them to be "baby" grazers of some sort. Instead, they have some of these animals. They reach a maximum adult size of about 1/4th inch (6 mm) in height and diameter. They are often tan to white and have mottled brown color patterns on the shell. They can be distinguished from all other Trochoideans by their small size and the presence of a small pit or hole in the center of the calcareous operculum that plugs the aperture. They reproduce well in aquaria, and are quite good grazers. If present in large numbers, they may effectively replace all other grazers in our systems.
 
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