Limpets Everywhere

[deklin]

I have been running SPS tanks for many years but after a tank upgrade 4 years ago I lost all my coral. Since then I have been kind of taking a break and just maintaining the tank as a FOWLR.

I'm now planning on getting back into SPS corals BUT... 6 months ago I had a seemingly overnight population explosion of these tiny limpets.

The larger ones are 5-6mm but some are much smaller (down to 1-2mm). They are everywhere including inside the plumbing and skimmer cone. I haven't added much to the tank in a long time so I'm not sure where they came from. Maybe they came in when adding snails or hermit crabs. Or perhaps their population was dormant in the live rock for years.

They haven't really been a problem for a FOWLR tank but Liveaquaria identifies hitch-hiker limpets as a pest that will eat SPS: liveaquaria pests

I think these are keyhole limpets based on the opening in the top of the shell, but there are many different species of keyhole limpets and these don't have the classic "slot" opening and are smaller than most.

If these are going to be a problem for an SPS tank, then I'd want to try to figure out a way to get rid of them before I start adding coral. If they are unlikely to be a problem then I will gladly just live with them since manual removal is not going to be a realistic option.

Does anyone have any opinions, thoughts or experience with these things?

 

[tonysi]

A clingfish would eat them up.

 

[eastlake]

depends on the species, I'm by no means a limpit expert but I also have a bunch in my tank with sps and they just eat algae. Agian, I know there are some out there that are coral predators but if you've seen a population explosion of them in the recent past without any coral for them to feed on I would assume that they're algae grazes.

 

[deklin]

A clingfish would eat them up.

Interesting, I hadn't considered adding a clingfish. Have you had success with one in a reef aquarium?

 

[deklin]

depends on the species, I'm by no means a limpit expert but I also have a bunch in my tank with sps and they just eat algae. Agian, I know there are some out there that are coral predators but if you've seen a population explosion of them in the recent past without any coral for them to feed on I would assume that they're algae grazes.

Thanks. That's a good point. They obviously are thriving right now on a diet that doesn't include coral.

However, the Liveaquaria article linked above says "The Keyhole Limpets are typically half an inch long, or smaller, and feed on unwanted filamentous algae, cyanobacteria, diatoms and even hydroids. Unfortunately, in the SPS aquarium, they will also feed on the tissue of SPS corals."

My concern is that they could still switch to eating SPS tissue once available. Do the limpets in your tank that leave your SPS alone look like this species?

 

[AlSimmons]

The link below might help, although I've never had any problems with those Limpets in particular. If you want to get rid of them though just pick out what you can on a daily basis. Do this for 3 or 4 days in a row and you should be able to put a significant dent in the population.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-06/rs/index.php

 

[eastlake]

I've never noticed any on my montis, acros, or stylos, but I also don't think mine are of the keyhole variety

 

[Hadla]

Aww wish I could take them!