Re: Aiptasia in curing live rock for invertebrate-only tank, Limpet avail.     10/2/11
Bob - Thank you! I'll wait for cycling to complete and then put in peppermints, hermits, and Nudibranchs if I can get them. I'm glad you said to wait for curing to complete. That's what I wanted to hear!
<Ah good>
By the way, I've been researching limpets here, and I noticed several people asking where to get them. I purchased some from reefcleaners.org and was very happy with their quality and service.
<Thank you for this input>
My new limpets are leaving scorched earth in their path, but I guess that's the point. Just thought I'd pass along that source in case anyone else asks.
Tim
<Cheers, BobF>

Question about the supply of limpets. Bob: It seems that I have purchased some Man made Florida rock here and there and received some very unusual creatures called Limpets. I i.d.'d the critter from "The Modern Coral Reef Aquarium" Volume 1. Svein A. Fossa & Alf Jacob Nilsen. An example of the scientific name and picture on Page 188 is Scutus unguis. And yes the animals look very close to a Nudibranch, except they carry a cone-like shell that looks like a volcano. Some species cover the shell with what looks like a mantle. These critters seem to mow down more hair and slime algae than 5 or 7 turbo snails together. Q: Where may one find a supply of these? None seem to be listed on the FFE web pages? I still have one that looks more like a moving volcano that does not wrap it's mantle, and the other was flame orange that did wrap it's mantle. And it looked just a Nudibranch of sorts. Very pretty!! But the seem not to like medications. This animal seems to be very low maintenance and very tolerant of water quality, versus what most Nudibranchs require to stay alive. Am I looking for this animal in the right place? CH >> Well, I looked around for limpets as well and couldn't find anyone listing them for sale... But do want to say a few things about them. I agree totally with your observations... and assessment... these Archaeogastropods are great and innocuous cleaner uppers. Having worked with local (S. Calif.) limpets with different projects, I suspect that they're not specifically offered for two reasons: They're hard to extract from hard substrates w/o damaging them... and Folks just don't know about their usefulness as yet... Unlike Nudibranchs, many limpets have wide, generalized diets (micro and macrophagous herbivores)... and also unlike the "naked gill gastropods", they don't have a tendency toward toxicity... Instead of being poisonous, limpets have a shielding "home" on their backs... and lastly, as you observe, many live in "marginal" and variable environments in the wild... and are therefore reasonably tolerant of the same in captive situations. Thanks for writing. Bob Fenner

Question about the supply of limpets. Bob: It seems that I have purchased some Man made Florida rock here and there and received some very unusual creatures called Limpets. I i.d.'d the critter from "The Modern Coral Reef Aquarium" Volume 1. Svein A. Fossa & Alf Jacob Nilsen. An example of the scientific name and picture on Page 188 is Scutus unguis. And yes the animals look very close to a Nudibranch, except they carry a cone-like shell that looks like a volcano. Some species cover the shell with what looks like a mantle. These critters seem to mow down more hair and slime algae than 5 or 7 turbo snails together. Q: Where may one find a supply of these? None seem to be listed on the FFE web pages? I still have one that looks more like a moving volcano that does not wrap it's mantle, and the other was flame orange that did wrap it's mantle. And it looked just a Nudibranch of sorts. Very pretty!! But the seem not to like medications. This animal seems to be very low maintenance and very tolerant of water quality, versus what most Nudibranchs require to stay alive. Am I looking for this animal in the right place? CH >> Well, I looked around for limpets as well and couldn't find anyone listing them for sale... But do want to say a few things about them. I agree totally with your observations... and assessment... these Archaeogastropoda are great and innocuous cleaner uppers. Having worked with local (S. Calif.) limpets with different projects, I suspect that they're not specifically offered for two reasons: They're hard to extract from hard substrates w/o damaging them... and Folks just don't know about their usefulness as yet... Unlike Nudibranchs, many limpets have wide, generalized diets (micro and macrophagous herbivores)... and also unlike the "naked gill gastropods", they don't have a tendency toward toxicity... Instead of being poisonous, limpets have a shielding "home" on their backs... and lastly, as you observe, many live in "marginal" and variable environments in the wild... and are therefore reasonably tolerant of the same in captive situations. Thanks for writing. Bob Fenner