Little critter in my tank

[bmill89]

Hello All I am very new to the hobby, and have been running a saltwater 25 gallon water box for two months now. I have a few soft corals, nassarius snails, a turbo snail, and a clown pair, pistol goby pair and a Firefish. They are all healthy and doing well. Besides the ugly stage the tank seems to be running well. Salinity is 1.024, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 5 ppm nitrates and I thinks it’s is .25 phosphate.

Anyway…I saw this little critter in my tank today suctioned to the glass in the back of the tank. It didn’t dart away or swim. I was able to remove it with a pair of tweezers. It’s the only one I’ve seen and I can’t detect anything on the rock, corals or fish. What is this? It’s about 1/4 an inch oval, oval, brown and almost plated looking. Should I be worried? Also I didn’t keep the little bugger, maybe I should have to investigate further.

 

[TX_REEF]

it looks like a large isopod to me?

 

[bmill89]

I did think of that as a possibility, but was unsure due to the lack of movement and less opaque color...

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I did think of that as a possibility, but was unsure due to the lack of movement and less opaque color...

Yeah, if it has legs underneath, it's an isopod; if it has a foot like a snail or clam, then it's a chiton.

At this point, I'd lean toward isopod. If it is an isopod, then you'd want to check and see if it can curl into a ball; it looks like the safe kind, but seeing it curl would confirm it.

 

[JGT]

Thinking chiton.

 

[bmill89]

Unfortunately, I was in a rush this morning for work and hastily disposed of the critter. When I came home I inspected the tank throughly and saw no sign of others on the glass, rock, or fish. But I might try to take a peek once the lights are out. Thanks for the info!