What are these?

[Gary Ellis]

They are very hard and don't come off the rock.

 

[NeSsyAqua]

have u seen like a web come out of it?

 

[Gary Ellis]

have u seen like a web come out of it?

No why?

 

[NeSsyAqua]

Are they like a hard spiral shape?
Search spaghetti worm.

 

[UCF Alum]

They look exactly like small flat-ish snails that I have all over my tank. Same shape same size.

 

[Gary Ellis]

I took one out...Here's a better picture

 

[ScottR]

Might be a limpet. Can you take a closer pic of the top? With better light.

 

[Gary Ellis]

Here you go.

 

[ScottR]

Here you go.

Judging from the hole on the top, I’m saying it’s a limpet. Perfectly harmless. Helpful in a tank. If not dead, he can resume his life back where he was.

 

[ScottR]

To narrow it down, keyhole limpet.

 

[Gary Ellis]

Will they multiple fast. I seem to have quite few. I don't want them to overrun my tank. Where did I get them. I have been very careful about adding anything to my tank without dipping or careful inspection.

 

[ScottR]

Will they multiple fast. I seem to have quite few. I don't want them to overrun my tank. Where did I get them. I have been very careful about adding anything to my tank without dipping or careful inspection.

I wouldn’t worry about them to be honest. They help to clean algae in the tank. In my experience, in a newer tank, you seem to have an explosion of one species until you start to grow and introduce other life forms that outcompete each other and keep others in check. How old is your tank? Did you use live Florida rock? (Just curious)

 

[ScottR]

Will they multiple fast. I seem to have quite few. I don't want them to overrun my tank. Where did I get them. I have been very careful about adding anything to my tank without dipping or careful inspection.

About dipping... different dips remove different things. Most often, eggs survive dips. Parasites usually get stunned but don’t die, but will fall off into the solution. In a rock, I’m sure a lot survive dips - although I don’t dip rocks. Some dips are for infections only. Long story short, dipping is a great precaution but not 100% effective. And to add to this, I’m sure a lot of inverts survive dips. After all, corals are inverts too.

 

[Gary Ellis]

15 months old and the rock is from BRS. It's REEF SAVER AQUARIUM DRY LIVE ROCK

 

[ScottR]

15 months old and the rock is from BRS. It's REEF SAVER AQUARIUM DRY LIVE ROCK

Lol. Strange. I have a buddy that dips and double dips and he still got some interesting things with a dry rock set up like pineapple sponges. Many of the things we get start out as spores and are super tiny. They can be attached to anything “wet”. This would be a coral, fish, invert and so forth. Even dips and QT won’t kill them. Most of them. This is the fun part of this hobby.........

 

[Gary Ellis]

Well thanks for your help. These sort of things creep me out especially when they just appear out of no where. I'm worried they will multiply and over run my tank..

 

[ScottR]

Well thanks for your help. These sort of things creep me out especially when they just appear out of no where. I'm worried they will multiply and over run my tank..

No problem. I wouldn’t freak out and nuke your tank. Let them be. If you ever go to the ocean at low tide, you’ll see lots of these guys clinging to the rocks, out of the water and getting blasted by the waves and blasted by the sun. This is why they were stuck to the rock and were hard to remove. They can survive hurricanes.

They’re a helpful clean up crew. I don’t see them taking over your tank. They’re basically snails that don’t move around as much.

 

[Gary Ellis]

Thanks again. You have given me the incentive to stay in the hobby...

 

[ScottR]

Thanks again. You have given me the incentive to stay in the hobby...

Don’t think about giving up. I’ve lost countless sleep over this hobby but I love it too much to divorce myself away from it.