PDA

View Full Version : small slug


surgy
03/22/2013, 09:25 PM
hey guys. day 14 of the new tank. has 22lb live rock. i have a small ring of 6 blue leds in the sand bed for a night light and a coral life digital timer to switch between daytime and night time in the tank. i wanted the leds so i could see nocturnal criters.

well i found one! my night light turns on at 9 pm and its 10:15 pm now and i just saw a slug about 1 inch long about 6 inches from the top of the tank sliding acrossed the front glass. hes obviously nocturnal. since he has to have come in on the live rock. and i havnt seen him in two weeks. cant get a good pick but his (foot) is white and he has two antenae that are as long as his body. a mouth like a snail. he is light brown with some golden ish marks on his back. its hard to tell if hes a baby snail with a small almost soft shell or actually a slug. but either was he has a hump back and his foot seams to be twice as long as the hump, which makes me think slug, since a snails foot is the same size as the opening to their shell.

is he bad? good? i hope he isnt bad because i have no where to put him other than my qt tank........ and i dont like killing animals that i forced into my tank.

best pic i could get of him since he is on front glass:

http://i49.*******.com/2e5jome.jpg

bdevillier
03/22/2013, 10:40 PM
sounds like it might be a stomatella snail. if thats the case, leave it, they are hard working clean up crew.

surgy
03/22/2013, 10:50 PM
just googled a pic. definately a stomatella snail! awesome!! "Stomatellids are herbivorous grazers that eat microalgae – including diatoms and dinoflagellates, as well as possibly cyanobacteria. They do not eat hair algae. " and i am in the middle of a diatom bloom on my sand beds now! explains everything. thanks a million. i love finding new critters

SDNative
03/22/2013, 11:55 PM
They also reproduce like crazy! I found one in my tank.. A month later I had at least 20+ of the little guys working in my tank. Definitely very good part of the clean up crew.. They do eat hair algae, or at least mine do haha.

nynick
03/23/2013, 06:36 AM
One of the best cleaners you can have, hopefully there is another one in there somewhere so you get babies. Night active also means they will not clean the same spot as the algae magnet for 3 months at a time. They clean a new spot every time they come out and since they will stop when they find food it often tends to be the rocks.

surgy
03/23/2013, 08:46 AM
also being nocturnal i can enjoy my pretty fish during the day. hate to talk bad about the little fella but hes not the prettiest critter