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limpets in my tank??!



Hello All,

I have some critters in my planted tank, and I wonder what they are.
They're definitely mollusks of some sort. They're 1.5 mm long, max. They look 
like teeny limpets -- only they're in fresh water. The seem to mostly hang out 
on plant leaves and PVC pipe rather than glass (possibly due to frequency of 
scrubbing). They have transparent beige shells. I love them. 
Any ideas?

My planted tank is a little like a homework problem, or maybe a new and 
unpopular aquatic gardening theme: keep a planted tank relatively 
algae-free, with only one voracious carnivorous fish allowed. (How about it, 
AGA-contest organizers?) 

My 9-inch long electric catfish Sparky (she was "free to good home ONLY...") 
eats EVERYTHING.  
(((Before you ask: about like an electric fence for cows or horses, startling but 
not exactly painful; and only rarely, *not* every time I stick my hand in her 
tank.)))

I had some danios to start the nitrifying bacteria before she arrived; she 
stunned & slurped up 2 every night, starting her first night in the tank, until 
all were gone.
I got a 1-inch apple snail, and she sucked it out of its shell within 3 days. 
I have had pond snails hitchhike into my tank; I have never seen one more 
than once. 
She adores chunks of salt-water shrimp from the fish store (1 prawn, $0.47, 
cut into 8-10 pieces & frozen & strictly rationed: yum). 
She wasn't sure at first about the red wiggler / compost worm. She sucked it 
up and spit it back out 5 or 6 times. Then (duh) she vacuumed & swallowed it. 
Catfish think EVERYTHING moving is edible.   :^D
Obviously, the usual biological algae controls -- SAEs, pl*cos, Otos, 
Amano/ghost/etc shrimp, MTSs, Pomaceae, clams & shipworms & gribbles 
(oh my) -- are inappropriate, i.e., lunch.   :^(

So when my Crinum leaves started getting LESS fuzzy & spotted, I looked 
closer.  I don't know if these little guys were stowaways in shipments from 
Robert H. at AquaBotanic, or Toyin at Rehoboth Aquatics -- my fave 
suppliers of African plants, which keep my African fish from feeling 
homesick (no, really). 
Usual disclaimer: no relationship, except happy customer. Check 'em out. 
(Don't worry, YOUR algae eaters will keep any possible hitchhikers under 
control. You've got lots of them, right?)

Obviously Robert or Toyin is my fairy godperson, because these "snails" (?) 
are too small for Sparky to notice, or at least to count as food.  
And the mini-limpets are making headway against the diatoms (golden-
browns) and many of the greens.  Predictably, the branchy green Cladophora 
and the tufts of black Audouinella are still staunchly resisting. 
And I didn't have to slog around in tropical rivers like Alfred Russell Wallace 
(or catfish hunter Shane Linder) to find these fab little beasties. What could 
be better?

I just wish I knew what these things are!
TIA,
Steff
landlocked in New Hampshire
wondering how far the genetic experiment in selecting for resistance to 
electric shock (in *mollusks*) can go
zot at umit.maine.edu