Can someone ID this, please? *Pic*

Kawaii · #1 06/30/2005, 08:35 PM

Noticed this in the tank a little while ago

greenbean36191 · #2 06/30/2005, 08:42 PM

Its a fleshy limpet. They are generally harmless grazers, but will occasionally snack on sessile inverts including some soft corals. IMO the cool factor outweighs the risk so I would keep it.

Kawaii · #3 06/30/2005, 08:46 PM

interesting, we did buy a $40 clam a few weeks ago and we went out for a few hours one day to come home to it completely empty, cleaned out. we were wondering what happened, could that have done it?

rutz81 · #4 06/30/2005, 08:49 PM

I actually have a black version of that in my tank(guessing it came in from some rock?), I see him from time to time, at night only... Doesn't seem to be damaging my tank in any way. I had thought it was a type of nudibracnch, could be wrong. My search of limpets on the internet came up with no conclusion to that being a limpet, looks nothing like that.

rutz81 · #5 06/30/2005, 08:52 PM

After further looking at your pic, mine is more of a flat black fleshy disc. Yours seems to have more of a shell underneath the skin. ANyone with an i.d. on mine, feel free to post,

Kawaii · #6 06/30/2005, 08:53 PM

yeah, when i look at it, it literally is just like our other snails that hitchiked but it has that orangy opaque slime over it.

greenbean36191 · #7 06/30/2005, 09:14 PM

Nope, this guy wouldn't harm a clam. By sessile inverts I meant things like sponges, tunicates, hydroids, and some corals like xenia.

Rutz, try looking up Scutus. It's another type of limpet, with pretty much the same behavior. It does have a shell that will sometimes show through a slit in its back, but often they just look like black slugs.

Kawaii · #8 06/30/2005, 09:19 PM

hmm, what would clean out a clam in a matter of hours then? we have a few crabs that i haven't identified.

these are a couple we have pics of, would either have these done it?

greenbean36191 · #9 07/01/2005, 08:51 AM

Nope, not those crabs either. They are porcelain crabs, some of the only truly reef safe crabs out there. They are filter feeders and aren't actually true crabs (they are in the same group as hermit crabs, the anomurans).

My guess is that the clam wasn't doing well, but wasn't showing any outward signs (which is very common with clams) and several animals in the tank worked together to clean out the shell as soon as they could smell it. Anything from hermits, worms, and snails to some fish, could have had a hand in it.

255 255 255 0 · #10 07/01/2005, 10:37 AM

is that a tube coral lower left corner of the limpet's pic? or somethin else?

Kawaii · #11 07/01/2005, 02:41 PM

hmm, maybe it was the lighting, the clam was very high towards the top but we probably need to upgrade our lighting.

the coral in the picture with the limpet we have in several spots, hitchiker coral, but i don't know what kind. here are some pictures

greenbean36191 · #12 07/01/2005, 04:35 PM

Is this FL rock? It looks like Cladocora arbuscula.

Kawaii · #13 07/01/2005, 05:02 PM

yeah i think it's from the Keys