Something is eating my coralline

[poweraid]

Something is eating my coralline algae. I don't have a pic but what ever it is it leaves small white trails. Has anybody seen this before? I do not have any urchins. Any thoughts or suggestions would be great. Thanks. :confused:

[drummereef]

Small white trails? Maybe you have cerith eggs... What snails do you have in the tank?

Does it look like this?
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/k.davis11/Images4.03/Cerithlay4.jpg

[Ebmorri]

Look up Chiton, they will do that.

Erick

[magdelan]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10203154#post10203154 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Ebmorri
Look up Chiton, they will do that.

Erick

Leave white trails or eat coraline?

[Ebmorri]

Yes, they eat the coraline and the path where they remove it is white and or grey at times.

Erick

[reefnetworth]

ive never heard of a Chiton eating coralline, just green algae is all ive ever seen them consume. :confused:
JDM :cool:

[Ebmorri]

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Cryptochiton_stelleri.html

http://www.bostonreefers.org/forums/showthread.php?t=34535

The only reason I knew this is because it happened to me. I had a rock with some real nice coralline growth on it and came home one day to see a big patch missing and this thing right there. I couldn’t remove the chiton so the whole rock came out and went to the LFS. Only to hear it’s fine.

[yeldarbj]

Do you have a mithrax crab? I had 2 red mithrax crabs that would pick off the coraline and leave it pure white. I got rid of them. My green mithrax never touched it.

[vickreyreef]

ok here is proof you NEVER know what you have lol...Our tank is up and running over year and a half....a few months ago we noticed that when the glass was covered in corraline the next morning it would be gone....due to a tough pregnancy we hadn't added anything in many many months so it wasn't snails or anything.....it just kept happening and happening and happening and we never really could figure it out...flash forward to the baby already being 3 months old and my husband was in the kitchen and I glanced at the tank and said "when did you put an urchin in our tank???" and he said "we don't have an urchin, do you even know what one is???" and I said "then what is that huge purple pincushion on the glass eating the coraline?" sure enough we had a very large urchin all of a sudden. I really liked him for a while but he has now eaten every scrap of coraline off our rocks and I'm sooo not happy with that even though husband prefers it....so today he is going to the LFS with an extra emerald crab and he will find a new home with some coraline to sustain him as we are all out and I don't want him to die even though he is really cool looking and a COMPLETE surprise lol....oh the white trail??? That is EXACTLY what he leaves behind....it is like he eats tons of the rock to get the coraline off the rock and leaves a trail behind him....:p

ps they are also nocturnal so you won't usually see them during the day or when your lights are on......

[poweraid]

Must be the chiton. I have several small ones. The trails left behind are not like the snail eggs. Thanks everyone.

[drummereef]

Is there any way you can get a pic of it?

[nicolemoulton]

I just thought I would let you know that I had the very same thing happening. I would get nice red and purple coraline algae and then it would be gone. One day I had a small rock get knocked off by a crazy fish and underneith the rock in a small hole was a baby purple urchin. It was literally smaller than a penny in size. He was the culprit...I got rid of him....and my tank is no longer having that issue. I know you can't turn over every rock in your tank...but try to find the area that is most stripped and if any rocks are loose in that area, just look around...all sorts of critters can pop up from your live rock.

[AquaReeferMan]

Any little starfish in your tank??