Getting Rid of Limpets

[Madratter]

I had some limpets in each of my 2 nano tanks. When I got the rock from TBS they were quite small but over time they had gotten much larger. And then I noticed that they had developed a definite appetite for things like Zoas and Xenias. It was time for them to go.

I tried prying them off the rock with my hands but they are tenacious little suckers and there was no way they were coming off.

I then got the idea of trying to use a credit card and slip it under them. I really had very little hope of this working. However, it worked much better than I had any right to expect. I would slip the credit card up under them a tad, lever just a little bit, and off they would pop.

The credit card made short work of the 4 I know about and they are now in my bad boy tank.

The one limpet is quite interesting. While it was eating some xenia, one of the neighbors attached to the top of its shell. So I now have some xenia that is even more mobile than normal.

Anyway, if anyone else is plagued by these things and wondering how to get rid of them, try a credit card.

 

[divemonster]

interesting story

interesting story

Thanks for sharing your experiences with you limpet snails. I've kept my tanks region specific and I have not noticed the limpet snails causing my tank inhabitants any grief.

 

[rumble]

I always read that limpets are mostly herbivores, but a couple of my limpets have been caught munching on zoas as well. Unfortunately for them I don't have a sump or a "bad boy" tank. I had a couple of larger whelks in the tank a couple of months ago, and was happy to learn that gorilla crabs like them. Too bad the crabs also like just about everything else in the tank. I actually watched yesterday as a gorilla crab used the chaos of feeding time to attack a small hermit crab that wandered too close to it's little crack. It tried to wedge the hermit into the rock so it could wear him out I suppose (I intervened and got the hermit out of there.)