Limpets - How useful are they?

[BZOFIQ]

I'm consolidating my 'temp' tanks into a new tank and I noticed there is a ton of pinky nail sized limpets on the back wall.

Should I transfer them or just let them die as I empty the tanks?

 

[Lavey29]

Generally fine unless you have SPS corals which they will feed on.

 

[Jmp998]

There are hundreds of species-some common in our tanks are useful cleanup crew. I have one (unknown species) that is very hardy, breeds readily, and seems to eat detritus-I would classify it as very useful to me.

 

[Wonton Soup]

Never once seen a limpet eat a coral of any kind. They eat algae. Save them or don't, they'll come back.

 

[BZOFIQ]

I'll move them over when I start emptying this weekend.

I don't think they clean much because they dont leave a clean trail on the glass like other snails do.

 

[JoJosReef]

Had one that came in as a hitchhiker on TBS rock. Was a superstar cleaner, especially ulva--at least, I would commonly see it on ulva and a day later see that patch disappear.

 

[Lavey29]

I think if you Google " will limpets eat corals" you will have a better informed opinion to work with. I have them in my sump but not my DT.

 

[djf91]

Yep I have a ton in my tank. They don’t eat all SPS but they took a liking to my Oregon tort, specifically the newly encrusted areas. The frag would encrust a new base every month and then eventually one night, one of the key hole limpets would plow right over it and remove it like someone took a pencil eraser to it. Eventually lost that coral. They haven’t touched any other Acro, sps, or coral.

 

[Jmp998]

The ones I have are mostly eating Berghia poop.

 

[DiabloJP]

About half of the dozen or so limpets that hitched on my TBS rock munched on my SPS frags -- I actually used a birdsnest frag as bait when I started relocating them to the sump.

 

[BZOFIQ]

I ultimately deliberately moved only a few because they didnt easily peel off the glass and after all day of moving stuff over I didnt have it in me to care.

 

[DiabloJP]

I ultimately deliberately moved only a few because they didnt easily peel off the glass and after all day of moving stuff over I didnt have it in me to care.

Yah, that's why I used a frag for bait -- they'd crawl up the frag and start munching, then I'd grab the frag and throw it in the sump and wait for them to depart. Rinse and repeat.

I still have about half of them in the DT and so far they've been behaving themselves and it's tricky to yank them without hurting them. If any others start feeling murderous I'll do the honeypot thing again.

 

[happyhourhero]

I’ve had some from the gulf that eat acros like candy. I remove them when I see them.

 

[kdx7214]

I caught two very large ones (2" long) eating the valonia outbreak in my tank.