This small lovely snail can be seen in thousands on some of our Northern coasts, hiding just beneath the sand surface on sand bars or sandy shores. They were, however, more common on many of our mainland coasts in the past. They are common on fine sandy bottoms elsewhere.
0.8-1cm. Shell is slender, circular, and shiny, with a stunning array of colors and patterns.Â
According to legend, no two button snails are alike! These snails are so beautiful that the guides refer to them as the “Jewels of Chek Jawa.” Operculum, thin, and yellow, formed of a horn-like substance with concentric rings.Â
The animal may retract deep inside the coils of the shell thanks to its flexible operculum. The body is pale and speckled, and the mantle is fringed with long tentacles. A foot-long, leaf-like plant. Tiny eyes on long stalks, beautifully banded tentacles, and two tubular syphons, one with fringes.
The snail’s large mobile foot allows it to burrow quickly into moist loose fine sand (the snail does not perform well in compact dry sand). The sleek shell allows them to burrow quickly. To avoid predators, button snails execute a short, spiraling leap and then burrow back into the sand.Â
On damp sand, you might find tiny paths made by panicked button snails, interrupted by small holes where they vanished into the sand.
Submerged button snails may sometimes spring up and float on the water’s surface when disturbed, occasionally forming ‘rafts’ of several snails. After a while, the snails will sink and burrow into the sand one by one.
II. You would love the fish because…
The Button Snail, Modulus modulus (Linnaeus, 1758), is another local species with a wide range of shell shapes: some are stocky, some are taller, some are light grey, others are mottled with brown flecks, some have tiny modules on the shell surface, and some have a smooth shell.
Button Snails are gastropods of the Modulidae family that feed on microalgae and seaweed debris. The shell aperture usually has a pronounced chink, or notch, that generates tooth-like lamellae, as shown by the arrow in the right figure.
III. Is this fish species peaceful or hostile?
Peaceful pets.
IV. Species compatibility
Guppies, Platies, Mollies, Swordtails and Tetras
V. How to feed this species?
Snails primarily consume algae in your tank. They’re quite efficient at it, which is why they’re so popular in the aquarium industry. They can sometimes be so good that they hoover the entire tank clean and there aren’t enough algae left.