snail with tentacles???

tranceFusion

AC Members
Mar 21, 2007
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Frederick, MD
ok so my astrea snail has all these tentacle looking things coming off of it all of the sudden.

there are probably about 8 or 10 and they are attached to its body above the foot, and come out maybe half an inch or so past the shell.. and they go all the way around the body of the snail.. the best that i can describe it is they looked like half a blackworm stuck to the snail..

also the snail seemed to be kind of sitting with its shell high up (alot of its body is exposed).

i tried to take a pic but it crawled between some rocks by the time i got the camera.. is this some kind of parasites? reproductive organs??
 
Ok, here are the pics.. bizarre huh? they definitely seem to move/be alive.. and when i picked him up one of them fell off and it was still wriggling around.. ewww..

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They are sensory tentacles, all snails of the superfamily trochoidea have them (trochus, astrea & turbo are members among many others). Kinda wild that one fell off and was still wiggeling around though.
 
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