Awesome Marine Mollusk! ID needed!

[ewurm]

Please help me ID this guy. It was turned in buy a concerned reefkeeper who said it came on some live rock. I couldn't identify it with the books that we have, so she decided better safe than sorry. I have seen shells of these before, but never a live one.

 

[Twitterbait]

looks like a cowrie or conch. what have ou seen it eat? cowries eat corals and some conch will eat other fish and inverts.

 

[ewurm]

I think I've narrowed it down to a species of nassarius. It definitely acts like a nassarius.

 

[hamato_yoshii]

I know nothing about salt, but that is a sweet snail. Do they come in fresh?

 

[ewurm]

I was wrong. It's a babylonian whelk, not reef safe. Thanks to Reef Central for the help.

 

[ewurm]

http://home2.pacific.net.ph/~sweetyummy42/Hitchsnails.html

http://www.gastropods.com/Taxon_pages/TN_Family_BABYLONIIDAE.html

Here's a couple references.