Batillaria minima
  

    These small snails are found in the Caribbean, Florida, and Bermuda intertidal zone. The most  abundant snail in the intertidal zone B. minima are not hard to come by.  They range from dark black  to a chalky color but are generally uniform in shape. Their size ranges from 3-21mm in length  [gastropods.com]. In my sample there was little variation in their sizes. At Spittal Pond the large tide  pool that my sample was taken from contained roughly 5 B. minima per square inch.  
     
    These snails are only active when submerged in water. They can survive out of water for short  periods of time by retreating deep into their shells [Orstan, 2006]. My samples were taken from  groups of snails already above the water line in the tide pool.  I was interested to see if fresh water  would coax them out of their shells as much as salt water would. If they responded positively to both  treatments then they would be able to forage and be active during periods of rain, not just high tide. Because this species lives mostly submerged in the sand I predicted that they would not have as strong a response to freshwater as they would to saltwater.