Keyhole Limpet

[flaunt]

anyone have any experience with these things?  i got one as a hitchhiker... i know he's been eating well in my tank because he's atleast twice the size he was when i first saw him.  i've read various things online about them, but i'm not sure how reef-safe they are.  i have read several things that suggested they might eat hard and soft corals, and also any type of algae including coralline.  this was enough to make me take him out, but i wanted to see if anyone had any experiences that would make me put him back in or get rid of him for sure.

[printerdown01]

I would keep him! -Honestly! I have a couple of limpets in my tank... And I had a million in my old 55... Very few species of limpets cause problems. If he is growing already, then he is consuming something, and if he isn't on your corals then it probably isn't eating them...  However, if he is growing and seems to be sitting on your corals TOSS HIM... but if he seems to spend most of his time on rocks and glass he will help out with algae... The species I had in my 55 did a GREAT job at eating algae!

[SteveC]

I finally figured out what's been mowing down my tunicates every time they grow back: my keyhole limpets! I caught two of them red handed (or maybe red footed) tonight and put them (and a third one) in the cornfield. (Note to limpet lovers: "the cornfield" = a 5 gallon tank set aside for this purpose.)

 

I've never seen them hurt anything else.

[rano]

I've had them in a few tanks. And I've never noticed them bothering anything that I wasn't gonna bother anyway. I always thought it was cool that they were happy enough in my tanks to reproduce.