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View Full Version : YIKES!! What is this thing!!

johns
08/02/2004, 02:39 AM
OK. What is this thing slitheringing around the base of my digitata?? It gives me the willies. It's the second time I've seen it in 6 months. The first time it caught me by surprise and freaked me out. This time I caught it with a pair of tweezers and stuck it in a plastic container in the sump. It's awaiting the verdict - flush or free. I mean, it freaks me out, but if it's ok, I'll let it go.

To help identify: It is definitely nocturnal. There a portion of it on the top that's smooter and rounded - that part is hard like a shell. The rest of it is just fleshy like a slug. It has distinct eyes. 2 long 'feeler' tentacles up by it's head. And then 4 to 6 thin hair like filaments coming straight up off it's body (see second photo).

http://home.wi.rr.com/case83/yikes.JPG

http://home.wi.rr.com/case83/yikes2.JPG
s13silvia
08/02/2004, 02:44 AM
i believe its a stomatella snail and a nice algae eater.. keep it
CrystalAZ
08/02/2004, 02:51 AM
Yes... stomatella varia. Good algae grazer, and they breed like rabbits. A definite keeper!

(I describe them as a slug under a fingernail :D )

Crystal
melev
08/02/2004, 05:19 AM
Yes, this is correct. Put it back in your tank and hope it makes more!
clownfish4
08/02/2004, 05:30 AM
Well, put it back in your tank if you want a vast outbreak of them. I have about 200 of them in my 29g tank.
melev
08/02/2004, 05:38 AM
They are reef safe, and nothing to worry about. The more the better. I've had many and then only a few. I don't know why that is, but it probably has to do with availability of available food.
Finious
08/02/2004, 06:56 AM
Cool...i have one of those in my tank also. It comes out at night. Glad to know what it is now.
Micki
08/02/2004, 07:01 AM
Too Weird! I just saw two of those in my tank last night! I wondered what they were, glad I saw and have them!!!
johns
08/02/2004, 09:59 AM
Ok. That sounds pretty much unamimous. It's back in the tank crawling around now.

And I promise to no longer think of it as a fierce, deadly monter :)

Thanks for the help everyone!
s13silvia
08/02/2004, 11:13 AM
i was kinda like *** is that, when i first saw one in my tank... THEN i saw my LR smoking :bum: but it was just the snail spawning i believe ...
melev
08/02/2004, 01:27 PM
Maybe some of you might benefit from looking at my ID page?

http://www.melevsreef.com/id/
gabe3d
08/02/2004, 02:22 PM
I as well have a bunch of those in my tank. They are literally everyhere. A good thing about them, is that they are nocturnal. So you wont' see these guys crawling everywhere during the day.
racrumrine
08/02/2004, 03:12 PM
A question I always wanted to ask about these guys is whether or not they can thrive with crushed coral substrate?

I thought I read that they like to have soft sand to burrow in.

Regards,

Roy
Micki
08/02/2004, 03:32 PM
I don't have soft sand and they are obviously thriving in mytank! :)
TippyToeX
08/02/2004, 03:34 PM
I've had them in a tank with no sand and they breed like mad. :D
reeftechie
08/02/2004, 03:39 PM
Originally posted by melev
Yes, this is correct. Put it back in your tank and hope it makes more!

mine breed like rabbits... I love them.
melev
08/02/2004, 03:41 PM
I see them on the glass and rock way more often than on the sand.
Shoestring Reefer
08/03/2004, 11:48 AM
I've got a bunch, and no sand. The come out during the day, and I definately don't have a plague.

They have lots of different patterns, too.