Limpets and Coralline Algae

pandaparties · Jan 25, 2023

So I have a tank that's about 2 and I don't have any coralline algae, despite seeing good growth and healthy coral. At first I thought it was because I had a bunch of urchins but they were rehomed due to a lack of food and in the year they've been gone I still have none. I noticed patches that pop up from time to time (mostly on powerheads) but then it disappears shortly after. I never see any on rocks. I have a 500g tank with tens of thousands of limpets. Now I don't mind their presence (I think they look cool actually) and they do a bangup job on my algae but I'm beginning to think they are eating all my Coralline. Does anyone know if this is in their diet??

Big G · Jan 25, 2023

Some do eat coralline. They prefer the green algae, but if there is a short supply, they'll eat coralline too. Here's an article on them.

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

pandaparties · Jan 25, 2023

Big G said:
Some do eat coralline. They prefer the green algae, but if there is a short supply, they'll eat coralline too. Here's an article on them.

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

Well looks like I'll never have coralline algae lol, they are absolutely everywhere and I think I have the type that eat it. Oh well!

pandaparties · Jan 25, 2023

Big G said:
Some do eat coralline. They prefer the green algae, but if there is a short supply, they'll eat coralline too. Here's an article on them.

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

Thanks for the info!!

zoomonster · Apr 26, 2023

Years ago, I had some of the big ones from Hawaii and they were superb cleaners and never ate coralline that I noticed. Mostly they stayed on the glass and reproduced prolifically. Fast forward to this tank and I have introduced some of the tiny ones that reefcleaners sells but never saw them again after introduction. Never seen the big ones available again either.

pandaparties · Apr 26, 2023

zoomonster said:
Years ago, I had some of the big ones from Hawaii and they were superb cleaners and never ate coralline that I noticed. Mostly they stayed on the glass and reproduced prolifically. Fast forward to this tank and I have introduced some of the tiny ones that reefcleaners sells but never saw them again after introduction. Never seen the big ones available again either.

Mine were 100% eating my coralline. I was having it only in spots that they never went, on the rocks it would show up and be gone the next day. After introducing a fish that snacked on them i started having it grow all over my rocks. I used to have tens of thousands of them!

Marcs_Reef · May 7, 2023

pandaparties said:
Mine were 100% eating my coralline. I was having it only in spots that they never went, on the rocks it would show up and be gone the next day. After introducing a fish that snacked on them i started having it grow all over my rocks. I used to have tens of thousands of them!

Can you tell me what fish this was?