Mollusc hitchhiker ID

[Myxini]

Hi all,

I am in the process of acclimating a shipment of corals. When I poured the water out from a bag containing a zoanthid frag, this little guy came out with it. It’s about the size of a grain of rice (~3mm). Appears to be some kind of nudibranch. But it doesn’t look anything like the images I’ve seen of the slugs that eat zoanthids. Anyone know what this is?

Thanks!

 

[ReeferHD]

looks like a very young Scutus Antipodes, a type of limpet, AKA elephant slug. will feed on algae and small sponges.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi all,

I am in the process of acclimating a shipment of corals. When I poured the water out from a bag containing a zoanthid frag, this little guy came out with it. It’s about the size of a grain of rice (~3mm). Appears to be some kind of nudibranch. But it doesn’t look anything like the images I’ve seen of the slugs that eat zoanthids. Anyone know what this is?

Thanks!

Semi reef safe elephant slug. They are active at night and confused with limpets but not related and known to eat at stems of acro coral

 

[Myxini]

Thanks, all! After some more digging online, this is also the conclusion I came to.

 

[NoohpyT]

Looks like it has a shell, my money would go on a black stomatella snail

 

[Myxini]

Looks like it has a shell, my money would go on a black stomatella snail

It’s definitely a stomatella. I moved it back into the acclimation container and the mantle retracted, making the shell really apparent. What a cool little hitchhiker!

 

[ReeferHD]

Looks like it has a shell, my money would go on a black stomatella snail

elephant slugs have shells, stomatella snails do not have a frilly mantle like the one pictured

 

[NoohpyT]

elephant slugs have shells, stomatella snails do not have a frilly mantle like the one pictured

didn't know that elephant slugs had shells but I can see the frilly mantle and have been converted