Confused conch?

[Formulator]

Anybody else seen a conch climb the glass? Mine have always stayed in the sand. I don’t think I’ve seen one on the glass in 9 years being in the hobby. What gives?

 

[socalreefman]

Anybody else seen a conch climb the glass? Mine have always stayed in the sand. I don’t think I’ve seen one on the glass in 9 years being in the hobby. What gives?

That looks like a nassarius snail I have about 10 of them and they always like to climb the glass and fall off. I don’t know why they do this but I have black ones and white ones and they both do this, very strange.

 

[SomeHappyFish]

Doesn't look like a Conch.. Can we get more pictures ?

 

[VintageReefer]

Agree. Doesn’t look like conch

Do you see the eye stalks coming out by that long nose? Does it eat with the nose stalk (that’s actually the mouth)

 

[SomeHappyFish]

If this snails stays above ground 90% of the time is a whelk. Will kill other snails

 

[Formulator]

Maybe it is a nassarius. I have both critters in there, though I’m starting to wonder if my conch is still alive now… I had never seen a nassarius that big and just assumed I was looking at my conch. It’s about the size of my whole thumb (I’m 6’3 and have large hands). It stays under the sand 99% of the time and I typically only see them during feeding, after which they retreat back into the depths. But today this one decided to go for a walk up the glass instead of going back under…

 

[BubblesandSqueak]

Yes, that’s a bad Darius but conch do climb glass. At least fighting conch do!

 

[Formulator]

bad Darius

I assume this is autocorrect for nassarius?

I just looked up “Darius snail” on google

 

[EricR]

As already stated, that's not a conch, but I've seen my tiger sand conch climb the glass maybe 3 times in the 3+ years I've had him.
*freaked me out the first time 'cause I never would've believed it

 

[BubblesandSqueak]

I assume this is autocorrect for nassarius?

I just looked up “Darius snail” on google

Yup

 

[krollins]

That's one funny looking conch.

 

[VintageReefer]

As already stated, that's not a conch, but I've seen my tiger sand conch climb the glass maybe 3 times in the 3+ years I've had him.
*freaked me out the first time 'cause I never would've believed it

Agree. It’s nassarius

In my 75g I have a fighting conch. I’ve never seen it climb sand or rock

In my 15g, I had a nutrient issue and had a lot of film algae on glass and I noticed my strawberry conch on the glass twice (to my knowledge) over the last 2 years. He only went up a few inches and was munching on the film.

My guess is if they are climbing glass, they are looking for film/food to eat