# limpets...



## Ownager2004 (Apr 18, 2006)

I just discovered these guys in my tank 4-5 days ago. I couldn't find much info on them, but one source said they eat plants.  Could they be the reason why my blyxa is melting and red ludwigia has some leaves with holes that are melting away? All the other plants are doing fine(glosso, rotala rotundifolia?, dwarf sag, java fern, java moss). 

Ive been smashing everyone I see, but i know they are still in there. any tips on getting rid of them?


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

You can't get rid of them :/ Their eggs are nuclear bomb resistant. Not even a full tank strip down wash with boiling water and H2O2 will get rid of them.

I suppose the only way to deal with them is to appease them and feed them something else, other then plants.


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## SnakeIce (May 9, 2005)

Zappins I think you are confuseing ostracods with the critter being discussed. I got some limpets a while back, still have some and am glad they are still around.

My findings are that they will not eat healthy plants. Now plants that are haveing trouble and are decaying like you describe is happening in your tank provides prime liveing conditions for them. Correct the plant deficiency problems that cause the decay and your limpets won't have food to continue the population expansion and will regress.

I wanted to keep them after I got some in on the half mushy rotala I bought. I also wanted to keep the rotala so I got them healthy and they stopped decaying. Once I did that the limpets faded away and I thought I had lost them.


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## Gregor Samsa Mendel (May 29, 2006)

What type of limpet are you dealing with? Acroloxus, the teeny-tiny ones? http://www.applesnail.net/content/snails_various.php 
I have those and it seems that they much prefer soft green or brown algae. In a "freshwater plankton" tank I keep in my classroom, the glass was getting covered with brown algae. There were MTS in there, but they were growing slowly and not reproducing; the conditions in that tank must not be perfect for MTS growth. Just to see what would happen, I tossed in three limpets from my shrimp tank. The multiplied like--what, rabbits?--no, pond snails! Within three weeks the glass was almost completely cleared. All that's left are a few colonies of green spot algae, and even those look like they've been nibbled on.

The cyanbacteria in the shrimp tank grow too fast for them, though, but they do eat it.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Yea actually SnakeIce is right. I got them confused, sorry about that.


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## Ownager2004 (Apr 18, 2006)

My limpets are pretty big. I saw one that was probably a 1/4" in diameter or more. Algae really isn't an issue in my tank right now. I think the blyxa is probably melting because its a new addition to my tank. As for the red ludwigia I dont think it would show deficiency symptoms in my tank before all the other plants?


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## Gregor Samsa Mendel (May 29, 2006)

Um, 1/4 inch isn't very big to me. :neutral: The Acroloxus limpets max out at 8 mm, or about 1/3 inch.


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## Ownager2004 (Apr 18, 2006)

oh snap!

:nerd: and here i thought i had some world records :sorry:


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## eplommer (Apr 23, 2011)

I have limpets: They are a mixed blessing. Kind of distressing in the morning when you turn the lights on and they're all "out". However, they do a lot of good work on the glass, but absolutely DO feed on the Leaves of my Red Tiger Lotus. Java Fern, Anubias, and Rotala seem to be immune. I have given up crushing them, so it'll be interesting to see if they reach a point when they out compete themselves and the population crashes.


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## wicca27 (Oct 13, 2008)

tiger shrimp love to eat them wish i had some more. i had them in a tank then put the tiger shrimp in there and found all the little shells laying on the black sand


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## Jeffww (May 25, 2010)

Limpets come and go. At one point I had about 100 of them all over my glass. Then they went away. They come and go with time.


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