Question about barnacles

[Atarax]

Does anyone have experience with barnacles in their system? im into the "real as possible" look and would love some barnacles in my tank, but Im not adding anything that would destroy existing residents or equipment. Any info or experiences would be awesome.

[LeslieH]

Barnacles are all filter feeders and totally reef safe as long as a few don't multiply into many. The downside is the possibility that they may spread to all rock & tank surfaces, clog your systems, and be a total pain to get remove.

[mrferrit]

i have some right now i think there sweet and really interesting to watch i collected a hermit crab with barnacles covering his shell he is soo cool the whole top feeds when he crawls around

[Atarax]

thats what i was afraid of. cant have them clogging the intake or powerheads/pumps. as far as infesting the rock, wouldnt corals/coralline just grow over them in time?

[Fat Man]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11015648#post11015648 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by LeslieH
Barnacles are all filter feeders and totally reef safe as long as a few don't multiply into many. The downside is the possibility that they may spread to all rock & tank surfaces, clog your systems, and be a total pain to get remove.

You're the expert, but wouldn't their free swimming larval stage preclude this?

[LeslieH]

Good point! I know a lot about worms. When it comes to other types of inverts I'm not an expert by any means! :) I just remembered reading a number of posts from people complaining about barnacles getting out of control in their tanks so despite having pelagic larvae at least some species can have population explosions in their tanks. Or perhaps it was due to bad filtration? Does anyone reading this thread have stories about bad barnacle growth or why this could happen?

Unless the corals/coralline are very fast growing the barnacles can usually manage to keep their feeding area open by constant grooming & abrading of the surrounding growth.

[dendro982]

I have very small hitchhiker barnacles in nano-tanks, they don't reproduce in significant numbers, no troubles at all. Except, then I see one on the best corals :D
Coral is still alive, so...