Some kind of sea slug?

[Ferret_Friend]

I have recently come upon what appear to be two little sea slugs in my salt tank. Currently, I only have a clownfish as my cats ate my royal dottyback. This is a 29 gallon, so there's not a lot of life here. A little bit of that red algae, but cutting back on feeding and lighting did a lot of good in reducing that to a normal level.

These little things just showed up, and I'm assuming I got them with my life rock a couple of months ago and they are just large enough now where I can see them. They are both the same species, but one is about 3/4 inches long now and spends a lot of time on the glass. It seems to be eating away at algae and stuff. It has two prominent antannae of sorts, and on their backs, they have what almost looks like a lima bean growth with spikes on the perimeter. I don't really think I can call it a snail, because I can't tell if that little lima bean cap is any kind of hard shell. Today was the first day I was able to see their backs though, so this whole time I thought they were some kind of sea slugs or something.

I'm having trouble finding a picture of these guys, but I'm curious what they are. I'm getting the impression that they are fairly friendly to my tank. They behave just like I would expect snails to. I just hate not knowing what they are.

I wish I had a picture, but hopefully you guys know by my description.

It was kinda neat to find a new lifeform in my tank that I didn't intentionally put there myself. Yay for saltwater!

 

[madhatter208]

Sounds like a stomatella.
type of snail. He's a good guy to have around.

http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/snails/view

 

[Devilishturtles]

That is what it sounds like to me too

They are very common and good algae grazers.

 

[melosu58]

See if he is on here.

http://www.xtalworld.com/Aquarium/hitchfaq.htm

 

[Ferret_Friend]

Sounds like a stomatella.
type of snail. He's a good guy to have around.

http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/snails/view

Yup, that's it! I'm glad my description was good enough. Personally, I like the little guys anyhow, so I wasn't too worried, but I like knowing what things are.

Here's a related question. Do I have to be concerned about them getting on my heater, or will they let go and fall if they get too hot?

 

[Devilishturtles]

I wouldn't be concerned. They won't go anywhere they shouldn't...atleast I hope.

I have a few and I always see them hidden somewhere. At night though they are all over checking things out.