Super Chiton? (Update 12-27-11 post #19)

surprised you even spotted it, i was looking at the close up photo and didn't see it, till i researched it on line and knew what i was looking for. guess its a good idea to look at the tanks at night from time to time to see whats going on in there. do you use a reg flashlight? or do you have one of those with the red light that i have read about people using?

 

Awesome something else that eats coralline but just off the rocks to bad it doesnt work on the glass also lol

That thing is what the size of a half dollar?

 

Very nice hitch hiker score on that one!

 

that is a big one! verrry nice

 

mine does not leave the glass... :-/

 

I got a couple of them from John @ reefcleaners in my custom CUC that are about 3/4 to 1in. These guys are always on the move munching away.

 

It was definitely tough to see, I think I looked at that spot a few times before noticing it. The greyish coloration just stood out slightly as all the algae in that area is pretty red. I don't think I would have every seen it with a red flashlight ;D Actually, the red flashlight thing is a bit of a myth. Human eyes aren't very sensitive to red, but it's basically just like low light, so, you can turn down a white light and get pretty much the same effect. A number of marine animals are actually quite sensitive to red though, they do not all have similar vision to humans. Some wrasse for example are very sensitive to red. There are numerous others as well. I just use a small mag flashlight and turn it down.

 

i read that about the red and believed it. but never bought one. good to know its not true, because what else was i to do with a red flash light ...lol

 

Just an update, the Chiton is still hanging around. I happened to see it this morning, on my overflow and had my camera right there. I got a much better picture this time. Also, there is a more or less full sized, male OC clown in the frame for size reference

 

There's a huge one like that in a nano at the LFS that we buy everything from. The guy said he was going to take it out 6 months ago, but it's still in there. He couldn't get to it.

Some chitons can get huge. This one was in the Abaco Islands. There were larger ones, but not that I could get to to get a size reference pic.