Zoanthid Hitch Hiker, what are they??

[mykidsmylife]

Okay, I added a zoa to my little 12 gallon. When I placed it in I noticed these guys and thought they were just snails and hadn't seen them since.

Last night I shined a light in to the tank after the lights had been out for a while and there they were stuck in the zoa.

What the heck are they?? It makes me nervous that they only come out at night. Are they feeding on the zoanthid??

They are those three little checkered critters in the upper left part of the zoa. You can see the top of one bottom of another and I'm not sure what the third one is doing.

Are these harmful and should they be removed?

 

[mykidsmylife]

Okay, I already got an answer and yes they are bad guys, eating my Zoanthid ...poor guy.


Heliacus snails

 

[skippy2]

I found 1 eating my zoos. I hadn't added any zoos in a long time. I blamed the zoo depletion on my dec. crab.

 

[Fishieness]

sundial snails.... yummy

 

[mykidsmylife]

sundial snails.... yummy

I could send ya some!

 

[Fishieness]

I could send ya some!

you could if you would like.... but i must warn you..... the last person who did that to me by accident, well, i sent him to hell. sso imagine what id do to someone who did it on purpose :duh: lol
just keep searching at night and remove all that you see. good thing those ones are good sized. also remove any eggs you see.
whenever i find a hitchicker crab or snail inmy tank, if i dont knwo what it is, i put it in my fowlr. I figure if it is good, then great, more clean up crew for my fowlr. If it is coraleating, two things would happen to it, it will die, or my puffer with eat it. :hi:

 

[mykidsmylife]

you could if you would like.... but i must warn you..... the last person who did that to me by accident, well, i sent him to hell. sso imagine what id do to someone who did it on purpose :duh: lol
just keep searching at night and remove all that you see. good thing those ones are good sized. also remove any eggs you see.
whenever i find a hitchicker crab or snail inmy tank, if i dont knwo what it is, i put it in my fowlr. I figure if it is good, then great, more clean up crew for my fowlr. If it is coraleating, two things would happen to it, it will die, or my puffer with eat it. :hi:

This is the largest thing I've added to this reef so far. I haven't even put any fish in it yet (but I think a shrimp goby and pal will come home tomorrow). I actually saw the snails in it when I added it to the tank. One actually fell out of the zoanthid and I intentionally picked it up and put it in my tank ,not knowing I have no idea what they are and just thought it was a free baby turbo or something else. I figured I would research what they were later. Now I know...BIG MISTAKE :duh:

Tonight while waiting in the dark for them to come back out I was examining my live rock with a flashlight and found what looks like part of the rock, but is actually like a small 1/4 inch clam?? it has a scalloped mouth/edge and it actually opens and little white flesh comes out. What the heck is it? It seems to be actually part of the rock and just by luck I noticed it. Is it just a little clam? I have found empty shells that look like tiny mussels in the live rock, but nothing that opened up and closed when I shine the light on it!!!

I'll try to get a picture but unless you know what to look for you can't really see it. I don't have a photo editor on this computer either so no way to circle it. Very cool though!!!