new rock

skippy2

skippy2

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Mar 14, 2004
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I bought a 3lb. shelf rock yesterday. I am not sure if it is kaliena rock or not but I am leaning in that direction because it is not porous. Last night I counted 25 chitons on it. Is this good or bad. From my understanding they grow very slow and only eat algae. Do people buy these at the lfs or is this just run of the mill hitchhikers like pods? The lfs says the rock has been in his tank for yrs.:confused:
 
The chitons should be fine. They are herbivores, and usually limit themselves to algae. I'm not sure if they will remove coralline, though. 25 sounds like an awful lot. How big are they?
 
They are just hitchhikers. I'm not sure why, but molluscs like limpets and chitons aren't normally for sale, except by biological suppliers. They are a lot harder to collect I guess, because they adhere so well to the rocks.

Those sound really tiny for chitons. Here's a typical chiton, from the hitchhiker FAQ:

faq_chiton.jpg
 
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The shape is right but mine have a different color. Mine are an off white with brown 'bars' on them. They must be more than an 1/8th of an inch now that I think about it. Doing some more research on these cool critters I found that inland aquatics sell them for $4.99 a piece.
 
are they the little bug type things that zip around on the live rock when the lights are out?
 
Oh no!!! I wasn't impling that at all. I was just wondering if I finally got a cool hitchhiker that I didn't have to pay for. I already have 2 from the original rock. So, let's see..... I paid $16.00 for the rock, including 25 chitons (pronounced ky-tons). That means I got $135.75 worth of product for $16.00. I like that kind of math!!!:D
 
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