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What is This ??? ... a Snail or Flatworm ... Bad or Good ?

J

Jenn

What is this little critter ?? ::)

I have picture of it .. but not sure if it uploaded onto this post ??? I may need help with the picture thing.

I found this today walking up my glass

It's about 1/4" long and oval shapped and pretty much flat.

Have a distint lined pattern on it.

Body color is tanish and marking are in red.

it had a red lined edging and kinda of a X mark on it's back.

X's are usually a bad thing , like poison.

Is this a bad creature to have ?

Please advise me if it is safe or not ..

I have it in a small measuring cup for now until I know what to do

As always , Thanks so much for your help. :)
 
panmanmatt

panmanmatt

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Does it have a hard or soft body? Shelled or unshelled. It looks like a chiton and if so they are good to have.
 
J

Jenn

With my eye I don't see a shell.

When I scooped it out and put in the the small cup it balled up in the cup , then it streached out again.

So , I'm thinking , no shell

I think I got it from my new snails I just put in.
 
J

Jenn

I believe , Slug like ,
The marking resemble legs , but they are not legs.
It was on the glass today before I pulled it out
So, I would belive it would fit in the defination of a slug.
 
J

Jenn

Thanks for the link, that's a good one to save

The chiton is proubly what it is.
It's same shape as in the pictures on the link

I guess it has a shell , it's hard to tell being as small as it is.

But it is humped , so i guess that's the shell

None of the pictures match the one I have exactly , but I'm sure there's so many different ones out there.
 
J

JerseyWendy

Jenn, I can't i.d. it, sorry. But if you're still uncertain as to what it is after looking at the provided links, I'd rather chuck it than take a chance. But that's just me. I'm a chicken. :-X
 
J

jonathan.

That looks exactly like the flatworms I have in my tank. I don't think they are bad flatworms, either.

But the black markings are identical to mine.
 
J

Jenn

Thanks Wendy ,

I'm a chicken too , That's why I'm asking for advice.

It would be nice to add extra critters ,
If they are good.

hummm..but now I'm confused...

Chuck it or keep it ?

Definity looks like it's in the Chiton family but no exact match yet

Anyne else with advise?

Thanks
 
N

NJ_ychung1

i have a bunch of these usually burrowed in the sand and attached to glass. they are not usually above the sand. anyway, i've always thought they were some sort of (small species) limpets.

the shell formation appears close to a limpet and they are a sort of gastropod that isn't really a snail nor are they worms.

here are some shell pics of limpets. these would be larger limpets not the ones you have....
http://www.gastropods.com/Taxon_pages/Group_Limpet.shtml
 
J

Jenn

jonathan. said:
That looks exactly like the flatworms I have in my tank. I don't think they are bad flatworms, either.

But the black markings are identical to mine.
Click to expand...

Hey Jonathan ,

Can you list a link to show me what you have that's the flat worm in your tank that looks like my photo?

Thanks
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

Second vote here for chiton...though it is hard to tell based on your pic.

Chitons are extremely slow growing and they are usually found under the sandbed/LR. I've seen them come up at night on the glass or LR to eat. Great hitchhiking part of the cleanup crew.

2983655974_dc727c4035.jpg
 
redfishbluefish

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Hawkeye said:
Second vote here for chiton...though it is hard to tell based on your pic.

Chitons are extremely slow growing and they are usually found under the sandbed/LR. I've seen them come up at night on the glass or LR to eat. Great hitchhiking part of the cleanup crew.

2983655974_dc727c4035.jpg
Click to expand...

Hawk, The two that I’m able to see look like limpets to me. Chitons do not have a continuous shell but overlapping plates…..similar to a sow bug (woodlouse).

And I have no guess what Jenn has???
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

So...I am honestly not sure.

I can say that context is important. I've never seen a limpet (at least the keyhole type) run or move away from me. They just lock down and say "just try and move me". And basically you can't without crushing it.

On the other hand, a chiton will hustle fast into the sand. Speaking of which - I've always seen chitons very close to the sandbed (even when they are on LR). I have NEVER seen a limpet in the sand.

Anyways -the pic above accurately depicts (to me at least) chitons I've seen in my tank. They do not look like they keyhole limpets I've had in the past.

But I am no expert!
 
redfishbluefish

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Hawk, my apologies….I’m colorblind….and I guess just regularly blind as well. When you magnify the little buggers you can now see the segments typical to Chitons. So I’m now in agreement to what you have.

Chiton.jpg


See the segments:

Chiton02.jpg



Still don’t know what Jenn has??
 
J

Jenn

Last night I flipped on the lights to see that I could find...

& my mystery critter has a friend in the tank awaiting the others return.

This one is a different color.. more greenish

I have to read up more or observe them ...
but I think maybe they have the ability to color change to their surroundings to blend in... as both of mine are different colors


I think that it's pretty safe to say... it's a Chiton.

Doing some reading ,Thanks to your links ;)

I now know they have an over lapping shell &
you can see that in my newer picture.

I also read that because of the overlapping shell they can ball up...

& I seen mine do that when I scooped it out into the cup.

You can also convert them over to braskish , maybe fresh

Funny thing is ,
I now found them both at the same spot ,
out of all the rocks in there...
It was on top of a snails shell that had deceased.

I love finding new stuff...

Here's the new picture of my other critter.
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

that is a teeny tiny one! Sure does look like a chiton.

oh and redfish - no apologize necessary. Cool manipulation of that photo. Glad we were able to solve the mystery together!
 
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