Sea snail

This article is about shelled gastropods that live in salt water. For the fish that are also sometimes known as "snails", see Snailfish.

A species of sea snail in its natural habitat: two individuals of the wentletrap Epidendrium billeeanum with a mass of egg capsules in situ on their food source, a red cup coral.

A sea snail Euthria cornea laying eggs

Sea snails are slow-moving marine gastropod molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the taxonomic class Gastropoda with land snails, and with slugs, which are distinguished from snails primarily by the absence of a visible shell.