Limpets eating corals????

[Slayyyter]

Just bought a few frags of gsp so it could take over the rocks but noticed one of my frags was partially closed and upon further inspection I noticed limpets on it. Are they eating it?

 

[UMALUM]

Yes sir, get rid of them.

 

[tzabor10]

Not very likely. GSP can close up when touched. The limpet was probably eating algae
Here is a video of GSP retracting

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Looks like a Keyhole Limpet, so possibly, but this would be the first I've seen one going for an Octocoral:

Just to clarify this - there are multiple kinds of snails referred to as limpets (with a hole in the top of the shell, these are Keyhole Limpets):

True limpets are from the taxonomic subclass Patellogastropoda, and they're harmless/beneficial herbivores.

Keyhole limpets are fissurellid snails from the subclass Vetigastropoda; a handful of these snails from the taxonomic subfamilies Diodorinae and Emarginulinae are known to eat SPS:

t’s rare, but there are two taxonomic subfamilies of keyhole limpets (Diodorinae and Emarginulinae) that I have found research on showing that they have a handful of species in them that are either known to or thought to occasionally eat corals (I’d need to go digging through the papers again, but, IIRC, they only ate SPS , and they had pretty specific tastes/preferences).

just to reinforce, regular limpets are fine, and most keyhole limpets (including most from the subfamilies listed above) are reef safe; to the best of current scientific knowledge, only a very small number of them are not.

The good news is that most keyhole limpets are also harmless/beneficial herbivores, and telling keyhole limpets apart from normal limpets is generally pretty easy:

If it has a little "keyhole" or bullet hole looking hole on the back of it's shell (where the shell comes to a point) then it's a keyhole limpet.

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:
https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/1671869346https://australian.museum/learn/animals/molluscs/limpets/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patellogastropoda#/media/File:Limplets_various_examples.jpg

Some keyhole limpets to compare with the true limpets in the quote above:

 

[TurboTang]

Do limpets eat gsp? Is this a known thing? Certain types or just all of em?

 

[UMALUM]

This Caribbean keyhole went through a handful of coral and wasn't picky.

 

[Slayyyter]

This Caribbean keyhole went through a handful of coral and wasn't picky.

I have a couple thousand of them but they don't have any white like yours

 

[Slayyyter]

I have a couple thousand of them but they don't have any white like yours

 

[UMALUM]

Wow, well all I can say is keep an eye on them now that you're starting to introduce coral. Maybe even more of a reason to thin out the population as to much of anything is never good. Also watch for hairline scratches on your glass.

 

[Slayyyter]

Wow, well all I can say is keep an eye on them now that you're starting to introduce coral. Maybe even more of a reason to thin out the population as to much of anything is never good. Also watch for hairline scratches on your glass.

I've had coral for three years. They just never touched and of my leathers or cloves till I added gsp :(

 

[TurboTang]

In my eyes a limpet that only eats gsp should be designated the "gold star limpet". I'd love to have 10-20 of em. :)

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

In my eyes a limpet that only eats gsp should be designated the "gold star limpet". I'd love to have 10-20 of em. :)

Yeah, quite a few people would likely hold that same opinion.