Biff0rz
Valuable Member
I noticed some marks on an acro frag and decided to dip it. This wasn't present anywhere on the flesh but was under it and came off during the dip. Is it a keyhole limpet? Is this the kind that will munch on sps?
Is this a keyhole limpet?
- Thread starter Biff0rz
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It looks like there was a hole on the right side of the shell in the pic. With regards to the eating SPS thing:
In short, the only way to know at this point if yours would eat SPS or not is to toss it in with some confirmedly healthy and growing SPS and find out. Most likely it would be fine, but there's always a slim chance that the critter would eat the SPS.
kjkszpj9
Active Member
I read online that keyhole limpets eats algae and diatoms but also detrius feeding, but can also be carnivorous and eat sponges, nothing i read sugests they eat SPS though. But hey im no expert or anything im pretty new with saltwater aquariums but im very interested in small creatures and hitchhikers, got 3 small eunice worms in 1 of my rocks in my 13.5g tank and they have never done any harm and never leave the rock ever.
I am pretty sure SPS eating Limpets are an internet rumor scapegoat from someone that had a bad experience with SPS. Most Limpets will confine themselves to a fairly flat surface because their only defense mechanism is to hunker down. Otherwise they would be vulnerable to crabs and the like. Keyhole limpets do have a hole at the top of their shell which they breath, but some also will grow a fleshy mantle covering their shell up to the hole.
Limpets do have powerful teeth, contained in an organ called Radula. These teeth scrape the surface for algae, diatoms, etc. "if" a limpet was on a flat-ish coral "Montipora eg." that had some algae on it, yes it would leave a scar or bite marks from the teeth, but it would not be eating the coral per-say.
Limpets will also tend to confine themselves to one area and there have been studies that show they can create algae farms. I have had one limpet on a flat 3x3 rock for months. Most of my limpets are on my glass where they do a great job of keeping any hard algae at bay.
Limpets do have powerful teeth, contained in an organ called Radula. These teeth scrape the surface for algae, diatoms, etc. "if" a limpet was on a flat-ish coral "Montipora eg." that had some algae on it, yes it would leave a scar or bite marks from the teeth, but it would not be eating the coral per-say.
Limpets will also tend to confine themselves to one area and there have been studies that show they can create algae farms. I have had one limpet on a flat 3x3 rock for months. Most of my limpets are on my glass where they do a great job of keeping any hard algae at bay.
Biff0rz
Valuable Member
I found these guys in my skimmer today, on the walls where the bubbles form. The reason I think they are eating sps is because of what looks like bites on a test acro I have see attached.
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DiabloJP
Community Member
Resurrecting this thread to confirm that some limpets do eat SPS.
I caught a couple in the act of chowing through some very healthy frags before setting up a "honey pot" frag and then gradually moving them to my sump as they were drawn to the tasty polyps.
One limpet can strip an entire frag in a night, so stay alert!
I caught a couple in the act of chowing through some very healthy frags before setting up a "honey pot" frag and then gradually moving them to my sump as they were drawn to the tasty polyps.
One limpet can strip an entire frag in a night, so stay alert!
Yeah, since this thread, I've found two subfamilies of keyhole limpets that are known to eat corals:Resurrecting this thread to confirm that some limpets do eat SPS.
I caught a couple in the act of chowing through some very healthy frags before setting up a "honey pot" frag and then gradually moving them to my sump as they were drawn to the tasty polyps.
One limpet can strip an entire frag in a night, so stay alert!
Are your coral eaters normal limpets, keyhole limpets (hole on the back of the shell), or fleshy limpets?
DiabloJP
Community Member
Not sure, they're decorated with a lot of cruft.
Here's a picture of the rogue limpets in the sump, happily eating algae:
These guys came in on my order of TBS rock and they look like the photos TBS has on their site.
I *think* they're keyholes -- some of them are clean enough that you can see a small hole in the middle of their shell.
Not super tiny either, the biggest ones are at least an inch long.
Yeah, I think you're right there.
Tired
2500 Club Member
I have some of those (also on TBS rock), and they did eat on a- I've forgotten the name, the SPS called a "cactus coral". I thought it was because the coral was already pretty stressed, but if they'll go after healthy ones, I may have to remove them.
DiabloJP
Community Member
Yeah, the frags they ate were super-healthy.
The limpets were in my tank for 6 months and ate algae most of that time… one day they were apparently like “well I guess I’m in the mood for polyps now.”
Pretty easy to catch with a birdsnest frag for bait, no need to pry them off the rocks or glass.
They’re welcome to live permanently in the sump and they seem perfectly happy there.
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Limpets all have a hole in there top cone. (at least the ones I am familiar with) Key Hole's have a much larger hole that is noticeably a hole and the mantle tends to come up the side of their shell.
To my knowledge, true limpets (taxonomic subclass Patellogastropoda) don't have a hole on top of their shell at all, but keyhole limpets (taxonomic subclass Vetigastropoda, order Lepetellida, superfamily Fissurelloidea) all have one for respiration.Limpets all have a hole in there top cone. (at least the ones I am familiar with) Key Hole's have a much larger hole that is noticeably a hole and the mantle tends to come up the side of their shell.
For some examples of true limpets:
Variegated Limpet
This is one of those spottings that made me smile, because this cluster of limpets looked like a town meeting, and it's something I'd never observed before. Cellana tramoserica, commonly known as
Patellogastropoda - Wikipedia
Your going to make me get up and look in my temperate tank arn't you...To my knowledge, true limpets (taxonomic subclass Patellogastropoda) don't have a hole on top of their shell at all, but keyhole limpets (taxonomic subclass Vetigastropoda, order Lepetellida, superfamily Fissurelloidea) all have one for respiration.
For some examples of true limpets:
Variegated Limpet
This is one of those spottings that made me smile, because this cluster of limpets looked like a town meeting, and it's something I'd never observed before. Cellana tramoserica, commonly known aswww.projectnoah.org
Patellogastropoda - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
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