White Strand On Snail Shell

[Dou g]

Can anyone ID what is attached to this snails shell? Looks too thick to be a vermetid snail, but maybe.. I do have snails covered in vermetids and pineapple sponges, but this seems different.

 

[dedragon]

guessing vermetid snail mucous due to the amount of tubes is see in the photo

 

[Dou g]

I would add that the strand is relatively stiff. It's getting battered by hair algae flowing in the current, but does not move much. Usually any mucus produced by vermetids in tank is super fine and hard to see unless a lot of fine particulate is added to the water column.

 

[Dou g]

Also, I'm seeing these on every recently added astrea snail, but not on my pre existing snail population. At least the ones I can see tonight.