Fuzzy Chiton

[LesPoissons]

Fuzzy chiton- Anyone have any experience with these? They have them on reef cleaners and are listed as great for gha on rocks- which I have in abundance. Curious. Thanks!

 

[Bleigh]

Wish I knew what these even are.

Bump....

Anyone have any knowledge on this? (Hopefully someone answers.)

 

[LesPoissons]

No worries, I bought 3 to try them out. They are cool looking. Cant attest to how well they do for algae because #3 1inch slow moving slugs in a 220g dont seem to accomplish much. But they are something different and part of a team. = )

 

[KleineVampir]

No worries, I bought 3 to try them out. They are cool looking. Cant attest to how well they do for algae because #3 1inch slow moving slugs in a 220g dont seem to accomplish much. But they are something different and part of a team. = )

I bought 5 to try them out. But how do they seem to you? Any updates? Especially about how much hair algae they eat.

 

[LesPoissons]

I enjoy seeing them show up here and there around the tank. I would give them 0 stars for algae consumption. They move incredibly slowly and if they eat GHA, I cannot tell in the slightest. I do have a 220g so I would probably need an army of these to make the slightest dent but even when one is moving around on an algae covered rock for a few days, gha is still there and not noticably different. I would guess that they eat film alage and maybe the beginnings of gha. They do not eat it when it's long and hairy.

 

[homer1475]

Love me some fuzzy chitons!
I've bought them several times from John @reefcleaners. They will literally eat everything on the rocks down to white rock, be it GHA, bubble algae, cyano, turf, etc, they will eat everything. Only downside is they are very slow movers, and in my experience they do not live very long term.

They will always be a part of my CUC.

 

[KleineVampir]

I'm getting mixed messages here! I want to believe they destroy all algae they're around, but I guess only time will tell!

 

[homer1475]

I will say the long strands of GHA they will not touch, but the small start of GHA they will munch through.

A word of caution though, they have the hardest natural substance known to man for teeth(yes harder then diamonds). They can and will leave bite marks in acrylic and/or glass tanks. I have yet to have a problem with them(they manly stick to my rockwork), but it is something I've read about.

 

[KleineVampir]

That's nuts. Harder than diamonds?

Isn't there anything out there that will eat long GHA? Why can't all the biologists find something out there that does and bring it into the hobby for us? xD

 

[LesPoissons]

Different people have posted that they have had success with a variety of tangs munching on long gha. None of my tangs algae blennies, other fish, or cuc have ever made a noticeable dent in the long stuff. I have a yellow, bristle tooth and hippo currently. 2 alge blennies. Massive cuc. All a no. I did have a dollaBella sea slug for a short period of time that did eat it, but the success rate with those his not great and it died in a week. (Tried 2 more times in a 220g 4 yr old reef. Couldn't keep them alive.) If you're having a gha outbreak, find the source of your problem, correct it, scrub off as much as you can and then the idea is tangs and clean up crew will keep it mowed short. If you're tried, as I have, to correct the issue by every means possible (gha can thrive in low nutrient environments once its taken hold) I reccomend trying vibrant. I'm on week 2 of my trial and it has def depleted it maybe 30% so far. My chitons leave no mark's on rocks or glass.

 

[KleineVampir]

Urchins maybe? Of course it's not something I'd really want to even have, but if it eats a crapload of GHA maybe it's worth it!

 

[Hermie]

Urchins maybe? Of course it's not something I'd really want to even have, but if it eats a crapload of GHA maybe it's worth it!

My pincushion urchin does eat green hair algae occasionally, but it's kind of like a tasmanian devil where I just have to get lucky since it can't really see where it's going very well. It doesn't really target hair algae, it just eats it if it happens to be grazing near it. That said, there was one specific type of algae that the urchin specifically avoided (not sure if it was preference or an absolute "no") which was like a turf algae that almost looks reddish. very very dense and super hard to get rid of manually. The urchin literally ate all around it and left it alone.

 

[KleineVampir]

We must find the ultimate GHA eating per biomass creature!!

The sea hare maybe?

Btw does anybody know if sea cucumbers will eat hair algae if it's attached to the substrate?

 

[LesPoissons]

Urchins dont eat long gha, although some people swear the long spine do- which is great if your rocks are wide flat surfaces lol. They can't get into all the caves and crannies. I have ither small urchins- pincushion, tux, short spine. They eat hard alage, film alage, and short cropped close to rock stuff. But if you have long gha, very few creatures seem to go for it naturally and its hit or miss on the ones that do. The only creature I've ever had was that 1 sea slug.

 

[SlugSnorter]

Fuzzy chiton- Anyone have any experience with these? They have them on reef cleaners and are listed as great for gha on rocks- which I have in abundance. Curious. Thanks!

they are slow but can eat nearly any Algae or bacteria on the rocks

 

[Rach77]

That's nuts. Harder than diamonds?

Isn't there anything out there that will eat long GHA? Why can't all the biologists find something out there that does and bring it into the hobby for us? xD

I see this is old, found this because I found a fuzzy chiton in my tank, lol. But in my experience although they are small, ZigZag snails from reefcleaners can plow through some hair algae, order a couple hundred, they're only like $0,20

 

[vareefer1979]

Love me some fuzzy chitons!
I've bought them several times from John @reefcleaners. They will literally eat everything on the rocks down to white rock, be it GHA, bubble algae, cyano, turf, etc, they will eat everything. Only downside is they are very slow movers, and in my experience they do not live very long term.

They will always be a part of my CUC.

How did your Fuzzy Chiton do long term ?