I need ID please

[Idech]

I’ve noticed this thing that looks like a turtle shell hanging from a rock, upside down, near the sand. Sometimes it disappears but it always comes back in the same spot. I can only see part of it, but it looks like the size of a small thumb.

What is it ?

 

[Bucs20fan]

Oooo that is a chiton great CUC member. Eats a ton of algae, although it will eat coralline algae if it wants to. Be careful if you have an acrylic tank, they have teeth made of the hardest substance known and can scratch it. But great member of a cuc. Keep it.

 

[Idech]

Oooo that is a chiton great CUC member. Eats a ton of algae, although it will eat coralline algae if it wants to. Be careful if you have an acrylic tank, they have teeth made of the hardest substance known and can scratch it. But great member of a cuc. Keep it.

Oh, great, thank you ! I didn’t know they could be this big. My tank is glass.

 

[Bucs20fan]

Oh, great, thank you ! I didn’t know they could be this big. My tank is glass.

Ive seen them almost 4 inches long!

 

[WheatToast]

Update?

Ive seen them almost 4 inches long!

Cryptochiton stelleri, the gumboot chiton, can grow to 14 inches long, but the only ones I have seen in my tank were under an inch long.

 

[Idech]

Update?

Cryptochiton stelleri, the gumboot chiton, can grow to 14 inches long, but the only ones I have seen in my tank were under an inch long.

I sure hope not ! There are thousands of species, so the odds are with me on this one.

Good for you for even knowing the latin name !

 

[vetteguy53081]

Looks like cryptic sponge favoring low flow dark areas

 

[WheatToast]

I sure hope not ! There are thousands of species, so the odds are with me on this one.

The gumboot chiton is distributed in the cold waters of the northern Pacific and is definitely not the hitchhiker that you have. I do see them from time to time in public aquarium touch tanks.
Do you have any new pictures?

 

[Idech]

The gumboot chiton is distributed in the cold waters of the northern Pacific and is definitely not the hitchhiker that you have. I do see them from time to time in public aquarium touch tanks.
Do you have any new pictures?

It’s still in the same spot I believe, so not much more to see.

I’ll keep looking it case it moves.