Keyhole Limpets

[SSalty]

I have a few hitchiker Keyhole Limpets. Some say they are reef safe, some say they are not.

Should I yank these out?

 

[JetCat USA]

I've got a couple that keep the rock around several of my Monti's cleaned up nicely, I've never had a problem out of them.

 

[SSalty]

Are you sure they are not eating the monti's? I heard those are the coral they go after.

 

[JetCat USA]

I'm quiet sure, I've got one baby cap that's attached to an oyster shell that this one particular limpet crawls all over, the cap has no damage at all anywhere on it and growth is pretty significant.

Sept 13th this year limpet can be seen in pic:

today, limpet can still be seen in pic, it even crawls up onto the oyster shell cleaning it you can also see at the bottom of the pic a supergirl monti as well:

 

[pagojoe]

Keyhole limpets are most likely reef safe, especially if they came in on Indo-Pacific live rock. They may not be true vegetarians, but probably won't eat anything that you'll notice or object to. Most of these limpets are in the genus Diodora, and may graze on cryptic sponges as well as scraping the rocks and glass in your tank. The Caribbean species belong to several different genera, and have much more varied diets. Some of these may actually eat things you don't want them to eat, so you should keep an eye on them and make sure they aren't spending all their time eating things you want to keep.

I don't think JetCat's limpet is a keyhole limpet. It looks like a true limpet to me??? These are all strict vegetarians as far as I know.

Cheers,



Don

 

[LeslieH]

Yeah, I don't know of any keyholes that are that tall & conical. I thought they were mostly flattened.

 

[pagojoe]

The keyhole limpets can actually vary from quite tall to almost flat, but JetCat's limpet has the rays and eroded spire, not to mention overall shape, of a couple of different nacellids. It is probably either genus Nacella or Cellana, and looks almost exactly like some variations of Cellana radiata that I've collected in the central and western Pacific. I'd guess that's what it is, and that it's strictly an algae eater.

Cheerios,


Don

 

[LeslieH]

Men who use scientific names are soooo sexy! :inlove: