San Diego ear snail!
Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2011 8:12 pm
This little guy floated into our tanks (I suppose he came in as plankton, though it's possible he was on a piece of kelp). I was cleaning up a holding tank this afternoon and went to look at what appeared to be a tunicate on a piece of kelp. Upon closer inspection I noticed some "antennae" so I pulled it out into a cup to ID it. I'm pretty sure it's a San Diego ear snail. The shell looked like it was coated with a sponge or something, and supposedly this ear snail has a relationship with a tunicate that lives on its shell. It's listed range is BC to California, though I'm not sure how common it is up here. Anyway, I was pretty excited to come up with an ID for the little guy (hopefully I did good this time!), and glad he didn't get thrown back over the pier before I saw him!