chitons???

[andreabooke3]

If anyone has any info on chitons I would appreciate being enlightened. Are they good are bad...I cant find much info on them. Thanks!!

 

[JoeCreature]

Chitons are primarily herbivores/grazers. They use their radula to scour algae from rocks. Only downside is they are great bulldozers and will knock over corals that are not secured.

generic info
http://oceanlink.island.net/biodiversity/gumboot/gumboot.html

 

[pagojoe]

It would take a REALLY BIG CHITON to be a bulldozer. Most of the ones found in aquaria are an inch or so in length, or smaller. The won't pose any threat to your corals or aquascaping. The larger ones that come as hitchhikers are usually Cryptoplax larvaeformis, a large but reclusive species that won't be any trouble. I don't know of anyone ever keeping a Gumboot Chiton in a private aquarium, and suspect it wouldn't work very well in the long term. They are cold-water animals. As Joe noted, they are all herbivores and grazers. I've heard stories that they can rasp at the walls of acrylic tanks and may scratch them, which is entirely possible considering their radulae, but I think it probably doesn't happen too often.

Cheers,


Don

 

[kingfisher62]

Hi andreabooke3, I have One in my 55g and one in my 14g biocube. I hardly ever see them , but every 6 months or so they pop up. They are pretty cool ,kind of prehistoric looking . They remind me of trilobites.
They are harmless but I have also heard they can leave scratches on acrylic tanks . I have never seen them on my glass though ,always on rock.

 

[Airwolf75]

I have a big 2-3 inch chiton, it eats algae off the glass at night, hides during the day. it will eat coraline, and filmy algae. it doesn't much care for the macro and large algae. Never has caused any problems.

 

[chaungo]

I had a chiton living in my overflows. As it got bigger, the overflows were too narrow, so it chewed a 1/2" hole in my plastic!! I got rid of it ASAP!