Limpets make clean-up ever so much easier!

[jclee]

I had some freshwater limpets hitch into my tank on a few plants. At first, they were an endless nuisance. They're too small and slow moving for my axolotls to have any interest in, so they weren't eating them (unlike the pond snails, which they pick off fairly quickly). They made every photo less attractive, as they showed up as white blotches interfering with the line of sight.

But now, I have come to LOVE them. Now that their presence in the tank is established, they keep the surfaces of the tank clean. The pond snails were never able to do this well, since they get eaten right about when they're large enough to begin reproducing, so their numbers are always low.

I just thought I would pass this along, since I know many of us are annoyed by algae, and there aren't many algae-eating species that can cohabitate with axolotls -- or other salamanders for that matter. I am not sure how one would go about harvesting a starter colony, though, apart from an accidental hitcher or two, like mine were.

Has anyone else got limpets in their tanks?

 

[Azhael]

I had them for a while but they disappeared I actually wanted them to thrive as i´ve always defended that the "aquarium pests" are actually a wonderful thing to have.
There are many creatures that suffer a terrible reputation and people always declare war on them, when in fact they are benefitial (as long as everything if balanced, obviously).

 

[daremo]

I have a lot of them too!!
At first I tried to get rid of them but then reading about critters here it said they weren't harmful and they actually help eating rests and such...

my axie doesn't even notice them and they seem to reproduce well, they're a lot now

 

[deliriah]

No fair! I haven't been lucky enough to get any limpet type hitchikers Got pond snails galore, and nearly everything else good or bad that you can bring home collecting plants and pond water. Any info on how I might be more likely to find some?

 

[daremo]

buy some plants at a cheap pet shop!!

I guess I got mine like that, although probably some other nasties came along ...

seriously, I think I got mine with plants, but maybe you can ask at an aquarium if they have some to share? You can easily remove them from the tank and they are fairly visible to remove a few of them for you

 

[Azhael]

Perhaps there is another hobbyist in your area that has them, or even in a pet-shop. I very much doubt they´d object to someone removing a few limpets from their tanks.
Of course there´s always the possibility of searching for some local species, but i wouldn´t recommend it.

 

[deliriah]

Thanks guys! I'll try the pet shop thing, and buy a few plants as well. But I don't know of any other hobbyist nearby that might have any. I'll have to ask around.Thanks again for the ideas!

 

[Otterwoman]

I didn't know they had fresh-water limpets! I want some!

 

[TarponMike]

Do limpets move around? I thought they were like barnacles?

 

[deliriah]

They are more like snails, or clams with half the shell. But I believe they're more closely related to snails than clams.

 

[firedreams]

We had some move into our tank with some plants a few months ago. There used to be some moderate algae growth on the tank glass, but now the glass is perfectly clean, thanks to the limpets! Best "pest" ever!

 

[daremo]

they do move, if you watch them you get bored and go away, but if you look the next day the one that looked still is not there anymore!

 

[JWERNER]

I had Newt tanks with them, lots of them. But none of my fish tanks ever had them even though I often swapped out wood and bunches of plants and stuff.

I honestly never had them do a good job at cleaning either. They just made swirly marks in the glass where they were feeding.

 

[Mac Myers]

Wow. I've never seen nor heard of Freshwater Limpets here in Flaaaarida.

 

[jclee]

Transferring/moving them seems difficult to me, since they're so tiny and (accidentally) crushable. I would be willing to send out a starter group if only I could figure out how to get them off the glass without killing them. (I've been trying to do this for a few days, because I want them in the other tank I've just set up.) At this point, it appears that few of them are on the easily-removed-and-transported-plants, as they prefer whatever funk is growing on the glass and the big monapi log.