For some time now, probably in the order of 12-18 months, there have been a number of empty Turbo sp. shells showing up on the sand bed.  Didn't really think too much of it, but the number has been increasing significantly recently.  Some time ago I spotted two new snails on the glass that don't appear to be herbivores and spotted them again recently and they had doubled in size.  So, they were eating something and it appears like it was my Turbo sp. who were on the menu.

For a couple of months I kept an eye out for the snails to make an appearance again (they only come out at night too), and finally I managed to catch them out in the open.  And in this instance both of them were together and one of them was laying eggs.  Definitely not something I wanted them doing, two of the buggers was causing enough havoc on the snail population as it was.

 One of the Mitra sp. snails laying egg sacks.

Since that night, I have also found about 6 other small snails of the same species, with close ups of the shell of one of these below, throughout the tank.  So it appears like they have been successful at breeding and the increase in the population would correspond nicely with the fall in the Turbo sp. population.

Close up of the laid egg sacks.

 The things surrounding the egg sacks in the above photograph are small brittle stars.  The tank is literally crawling with thousands of this species of brittle star.  Interesting thing about this species of brittle star is I have caught them in the various stages of under going asexual reproduction by splitting in half to produce two new indivuals.

Close up of the Mitra sp. egg sacks outside of the tank.

Here are two close ups of the snails' shell, from above and below.  They have subsequently been indentified to below to the Mitra genus, but have not been able to pin them down to a particular species.

Top view of the Mitra sp. shell. 

 Bottom view of Mitra sp. shell.

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