It does seem to have pincher like features. The antennas go crazy when he's out. But he doesn't come out any farther then that. I've checked at odd hours of the night and he's just poking out. I really want to keep him alive, but not knowing what he is makes it a challenge. I put a little phyto in the tank, a but of rods coral blend. Only fish in the tank is a yellow clown goby.
As regards the snail, I bought him at an LFS as a cleaner so I'm not to concerned but now that you've thrown the word predatory out there I'm going to investigate. I might need my slightly larger glasses.
Doesn't look like a mantis to me.. looks like crab or shrimp of some sort. I wouldn't worry about him unless you see fish or other inverts disappearing.
[I]@DaveJ wrote:[/I][quote="Cool.. is that a conch or a whelk next to it? thats what stood out at first.... said:
Definitely a whelk - get rid of it because it will kill and eat other snails."]
Dead on again and I'm baffled that this LFS sold me 3 of them... In fact they stock these...
I did my best to rid my tank of these guys but failed to get them all before they killed my clown goby. Which I got from the same LFS that sold me the whelks. He had tiny bite marks on him for the last week and I could t figure out why. But he would have tiny jagged flesh bits all over. Today before lights on I saw 3 whelks pinning him into where he sleeps covering his whole body. I got all of them out now I believe but I'm unbelievable upset that an LFS would be sell these. Now I'm having to take the hour and a half round trip drive after work today to try and get an explanation. I'm not going to go off or anything and I will be calm in discussing this with them, but I see no reason for them to excuse this or put blame elsewhere. And would it be wrong of me to expect them to NOT stock whelks and sell them? At least not to some one who asks for "a few snails". Is there any reason why an LFS would stock these?
The long neck gives it away.
