Question About Sundial Snails

[SubRosa]

I was doing a bit of rescaping on a customer tank, which included breaking a Euphyllia colony off of a rock covered with Blue Green Palys. When the colony broke off, a rather large Sundial Snail (penny sized) fell off the rock. Now normally I would just throw it in the nearest trash can or toilet without a second thought, but I recently set up a fowlr that will never house corals. Right now the only inhabitants are a small YTB Damsel and a ping pong ball sized Mappa Puffer. I figured the Puffer would eat it and that would be that, so I kept it. It turns out that at least at the present time, the Puffer does not consider snails food, since there are Ceriths and Colonistas that came in with the rock and he has never shown interest in them, and I put the Sundial right in front of him and he briefly checked it out and then went on his way. So anyway, the question is, does anyone know whether or not Sundials are obligate on Zoas? It's actually a very attractive snail, has been cruising the tank out in the open fearlessly, and it would be cool to keep it until the Puffer eats it, if ever. But I'm certainly not going to feed it Zoas! Anyone?

 

[ddelozier]

If its truely a sundial snail, and there are not going to be any zoa's in the tank, there is nothing to do. It may find food in the form of some algae types, or it will starve and problem solved. They are only a serious threat in a tank populated with Zoa's. Otherwise, from what i can read, they are not an issue. Not much info on what else they eat besides zoa's, but my guess is they arent a threat to in a Fowlr tank.

 

[SubRosa]

I had considered the possibility of toxicity, but this one lived in a tank in which Blue Green Palys spread like wildfire while the customer couldn't keep a Zoa to save his life. And the Puffer has no interest anyway, he'd rather eat his mysids and ghost shrimp.

 

[ReefApprentice]

You could frag and feed it a single zoa everyonce and a while.Other than that it would be puffer food or starve and be bristle food.

 

[Mikelkopp]

The customers must keep the Zoa in order to save the file otherwise the problem can be arise.

 

[SubRosa]

Snail is still going.