Holothurian impatiens?

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loganj

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Oct 25, 2002
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Location
Chatsworth, GA
Found this critter last week, but Kymme was gone to Alabama and had the camera with her. Found it again tonight. It was tentatively ID'ed as a holothurian impatiens by the description I gave. After looking at some pics on the web, I'm not so sure. Apologize in advance for the lousy pics...best the camera will do...or maybe it's the operator :oops: .
Any ideas as to what it is?
Logan J
 
chiton

Yeah...looked around on the web for some pics and I believe you're right. That must be what it is although I haven't been able to ID the species yet. From what I read, this is a good critter to have as it's main diet is algae and diatoms. One variety only reaches 4" in length...I should be so lucky as to have that one. Am I missing something? I didn't see anything about it having any toxic properties like a cucumber. Is it gonna jump out of the tank and eat one of the chihuahuas one day or is it a good thing to have in there.
Logan J
 
update on chitons

Well...a little more research has yielded more info on the chiton. I said they ate algae...well...coraline algae to be exact. They also eat diatoms, but the coraline is their food of choice. I'm not worried about it much as I have lots of the stuff and I don't think one little chiton is going to do an unreasonable amount of damage. They only grow about a millimeter per year. Wouldn't want a bunch of them though. Of particular interest to those of you who have acrylic tanks: The chiton's teeth are strong enough to rasp grooves in acrylic. Probably don't want one of these critters in that nice clear Clarity tank.
Logan J
 
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