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HELP! Cone snail, octo killer?

Joined
Feb 9, 2009
Messages
12
Hello,


I currently have a small cone snail ( 1/4 inch long) that is has a greenish black with some white here and there. Though the does not seem to be any pattern with the colors, and from that I am having a hard time Identifying it. It is currently quarantined and away from the octopus. What should I do? Is it poisonous? If so can its kill my octo? Can it kil me?some cone snails being extremely venomous, even more venomous than some killer snakes and spiders. I'll try to get a digital camera so you can see it, but for what should I do?
:confused::confused::confused:
sorry for the spelling,
thank guys
 
Crap!

As I was going to grab the lid for the jar in the tank, I noticed that my octo came out for a stroll and decided to go check out the bottle, and after battling him for a minute he finally got in a found the snail and went back to his PVC pipe.:yelling: and is now very content with eat a potentially deadly snail.......I also did notice that the moment that he made contact with the snail he dramatically changed color..... sorry for the post.
 
Hopefully this is a cone from the Caribbean. I know there are some from the Keys that are not deadly and are thought to eat brissel worms. I cannot describe it, unfortunately. One of Ken's customers had asked about them for this purpose so I inquired about the danger of keeping one. Unfortunately, the experiement we casually discussed never came about. As far as the safety of the octo, I have no clue so be sure and complete this thread. The color change may have just been excitement from capturing the food as he would likely have released it if there was a chemical reaction (or at least this has been my observation with stinging polyps).
 
I've never heard of cone snails eating Bristle Worms...it would be great to hear more about this !

Cones can be great reef tank inhabitants, but there is always that element of "what if ?"
 
cthulhu77;134793 said:
I've never heard of cone snails eating Bristle Worms...it would be great to hear more about this !

That is what I said when I read the e-mail and wrote Ken about the possibilities and safety of an experiment. I actually have a video of a mithrax crab eating a brissle but I have only seen that once and the crab was likely an oddity for a number of reasons, like it kept losing legs but continued to survive and lived close to a year with only two). Right now Ken is absolultely snowed but I will try again to see about experimenting with these later in the year (I stuck a note in my calendar as a reminder :wink:). Brissles are very beneficial but keeping them under control in the substrate is desireable :heee:. Switching to a thin sand bed has been most helpful to avoid this:
 

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how did you get all those bristle worms! I have some in my tank now I have a couple that are about a foot long. Some of them need to be removed. Do you have any suggestions? Maybe I should post this on a new thread? And one more thing I have found a yellow millipeed that has the same shape of a bristle worm but is has legs and it eats bristle worms. It produces a mucus around it sometimes. It is about a foot long and Im affriad its poisonous. Can any one I.D. it? \

thanks
 
The bristle worm horror photo was the result of changing out bottom substrate in a 4 year old seahorse tank with a substrate of larger crushed coral. I have since switched all but one tank to a thin sand bed and have far better nitrate readings even with far fewer worms. In the one tank that still has this unrecommded bottom substrate, I use a siphon wand with a built in screen that leaves most of the substrate but helps vacuum up worms to keep them under control (they are good clean up crew but they can get out of hand). Keeping all substrate well vacuumed helps (less food for them) but they also live deep in the LR so even if you wanted to, there is little you can do to eliminate them in an established tank (there are methods to remove them in new LR but it damages the LR considerabley). Your millepied sounds interesting. A photo would be helpful for others (not me I am afraid) to help identify it.
 

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