So anyone know what this is?
I can't really tell from the picture because it is a bit blurry, but does it have a hard shell to it? If so, then it looks like it might be a freshwater limpet. I had an infestation of those a couple years ago and they were a major pain to get rid of!
I've attached a couple pictures of what my limpets looked it.
It is a limpet and they are harmless.
A couple of assassin snails added to the tank got rid of mine...
Thanks everyone! Now that I know that they are harmless and how to get rid of them. I guess I will be looking into Assassin Snails. Its a shame because I like the little snails I have already. Oh well, I guess I can get more once the limpets are gone!
You don't need to get assassin snails or get rid of your snails or limpets. They are all part of your small ecosystem. As long as they don't take over the tank I welcome them. They help control algae and serve as food to some fish. They are just part of a mature aquarium.
I get that they are part of the aquarium and not really doing any harm. I do think that there are too many of them for my 5.5g. What would you think is a healthy amount compared to the volume of the tank? Also do you think that Rasbora Maculata would consume any of them and keep them in check?
I got rid of my limpets with a product called "No Planaria". It essentially killed off all limpets, along with my nerite snails. :( It had no effect on my fish and shrimp, though. Since you have snails you want to keep, I'd stay away from it. After several months of doing major water changes, I still could not keep any nerite snails in my tank.
I have assassin snails in my tank to keep the MTS population in check. I also have limpets. My assassins don't seem to eat the limpets, but maybe because the MTS are easier targets. What I do is use a magnetic algae scraper to push the limpets up to the top of the tank so I can smush them with my finger. It doesn't eliminate them but keeps the numbers down.
I'm not that attached to the snails but don't want to make my tank uninhabitable to snails. I think I may just do the crush method once I get the fish. Hopefully the fish will eat the remains?
Do you have alot of plants in your tank? If so, it's alot harder to find all of them because they are so small.
When I had them in my tank, I literally spent 5 minutes every day squishing them. This went on for a couple of months before I finally gave up. Since your tank is smaller, you may have better luck than I did. :)
You can see the tank here
http://ovas.ca/forum/index.php?topic=58787.msg330079;topicseen#new
Check the last post by Charlie!
If I don't get them all that's fine as they are not harmful. If the snails, shrimp, or eventual fish will eat them, all the better. I just find them annoying to see on the glass!
That's a nice looking tank! It may be hard getting all of them because they are so small and you have alot of places for the limpets to hide in.
I found them to look very ugly in my tank and became OCD about it when they started to multiply. That's why I went to the extreme to get rid of them. I regretted it afterwards and wished I had tried assassin snails first. Mind you, I used very high concentrations of No Planaria for over a week because it did not seem to take care of the limpets at lower dosages.
I may try the assassin snails. I just want to read up on them a bit first!
I'm hoping that I can use this tank and any other small tanks I get to help populate my 75g when I get it!
So I have been reading up a bit on this topic. It would seem that I need baby Assassin Snails to take care of the Limpets and not adults!
The funny thing is I never really observed any in the tank, that said I would suggest you stop over thinking it.
Be careful with overfeeding the tank since I don`t think you have a heavy bio load at the moment, you can stop by & I can give you some" No Planaria " if you want to try it as suggested by George.
LMK.
Would placing a piece of lettuce at the bottom of the tank after lights out help get rid of the limpets? It's works for nuisance snails.
So i have decided to take Charlies advice and just relax and cut back on feeding. I have already noticed a decrease in numbers and size of the Limpets. Hopefully they will just fade away with no extra work. If not they will be squished on sight!
Morgan