Breeding the Bleeding Tooth Nerite (Nerita peloronta)
Nerita peloronta is a Caribbean intertidal nerite with a red aperture mark and separate sexes. It lays egg capsules on rock that release planktonic veligers, so it is not bred in home reef tanks.
Overview
Nerita peloronta Linnaeus, 1758, the bleeding tooth nerite, is a marine snail of the family Neritidae from the West Indies, the Caribbean, western Florida and Bermuda. The shell reaches about 5 cm and carries an area of red coloration beside the columellar 'teeth', the feature behind its common name; the operculum is dark red and granulated. It lives in intertidal splash zones on rocky shores and is kept as an algae grazer.
Sexing
Like other nerites, Nerita peloronta has separate sexes that cannot be distinguished externally. Fertilization is internal after copulation, but the red aperture mark and shell pattern give no indication of sex, so deliberate pairing is not feasible.
Spawning & Larvae
Females deposit flattened egg capsules on hard rocky substrate, each holding several eggs. The eggs hatch into planktonic veliger larvae that feed in the water column; nerite larvae may remain in the plankton for an extended period, dispersing widely before settling and metamorphosing into juveniles.
Common Challenges
- Egg capsules can be deposited in a tank, but planktotrophic veligers do not mature in closed water.
- The extended planktonic phase cannot be sustained inside an aquarium.
- Skimmers, filters and pumps remove the tiny larvae, which also require plankton-grade food.
- As a splash-zone intertidal animal, it experiences emersion in nature that home tanks do not replicate.