Anyone recognize there little snails? I have hundreds of them.

[Tanster2]

Sorry I couldn't get a close up at the moment, but I have hundreds of these little white snails that come out mostly at night. I believe they are collonista snails? Anyone else experience these? They have 2 tiny little antenna like appendages, and their shells are mostly rounded. Also ignore that bubble algae, the emeralds are working on it

 

[Shawn]

They look like limpets/chitons, and they're fine

 

[Tanster2]

They look like limpets/chitons, and they're fine

They might be limpets! I need to cut back feeding. So many of these things!

 

[Shawn]

Limpets are SUPER common in this hobby. I misspoke on chitons - they're more like flat long ovals. I have limpets and chitons and stomatellas and.... Haha. I made it a point to collect good hitchhikers

 

[jcook54]

Could be Collonista snails. They're also good little buggers but their numbers can get a little crazy. They looks like tiny little snails whereas limpets look like little tanks with a flatter, pyramid shaped shell.

 

[Tanster2]

I think it's safe to say they're harmless. They mostly come out during the night and eat whatever is on the glass. Gonna cut back feeding a bit, because I think it's a sign of excess nutrients.

Thanks guys

 

[NanCrab]

Limpets are SUPER common in this hobby. I misspoke on chitons - they're more like flat long ovals. I have limpets and chitons and stomatellas and.... Haha. I made it a point to collect good hitchhikers

What do all of these creatures, “good hitchhikers”, do for the environment?

 

[jcook54]

Most of them will eat film algae. They're so small that in order to really help they would have to be at plague proportions but they are kinda cool for biodiversity. Here's the hitchhiker site I check first when I'm looking for stuff.

https://www.lionfishlair.com/hitchhikers-guide/

 

[NanCrab]

Thanks Justin!

 

[Shawn]

What do all of these creatures, “good hitchhikers”, do for the environment?

I'm all about biodiversity. I just enjoy seeing all the different wildlife in my tank. Brittle stars, limpets, snails, crabs, chitons, pods, I've got them all. They are also good indicators of when I'm overfeeding - if I SEE a bristle worm when lights are on, then I'm overfeeding. lol. All these things we've mentioned are just visual indicators to me.

 

[Tanster2]

Same here man. I've seen everything from fireworms to stomatellas to several different sponges in my 30. When I start my new setup I definitely am using dry base rock instead of live rock. The rock I originally used came from 4 or 5 different systems lol

 

[ActiveAngel]

+1 on Collonistas or similar snails. Definitely not limpets; you can see the shape better on the leftmost snails.

 

[Tanster2]

Thanks! I think so too. Really look like collonistas after comparing them a bit to other pictures I've seen.

 

[Shawn]

I've never had fireworms thank god.

 

[ActiveAngel]

You know what I’ve never had as a hitchhiker, but always wanted to find, mantis shrimp. Up in Chicago, I would clean all the live rock that would come into the store and find all manner of creatures. And my coworkers always found various species of mantis shrimps, but never once did I. But I did find lots of other cool critters!

 

[NanCrab]

But I did find lots of other cool critters!

I don’t like bugs. I’m not scared of them, I know they serve a purpose in our most amazing ecosystem, but most of them are just....yuck.
My husband might think they’re cool, idk lol

 

[Tanster2]

I see reefers keep mantis shrimp in their own enclosures. Apparently they're messy eaters and need good water changes/filtration to keep happy, but they're pretty hardy anyways. Beautiful animals they are.