Are slugs bad hitchikers?
 

Hey.

So about a week ago I turned on the lights in my room and found a slug on the glass- this was at night- during the day they are nowhere to be found. Anyway its a pale sand color and has a longish body with no shell rather than a round body. I thought nothing of it and thought it might be a benefit in cleaning the glass. Yesterday I turned on the light in the early morning when it was still dark and I saw the same long one which is now about the length of half a pinky finger and a 3 or 4 more with the same color but round. I also found a black slug- again no shell but on the glass it looks the same as a turbo snail same shape mouth same spot and the body is round. Are these slugs anything to worry about? I do have quite a bit of algae on my glass that I want to get rid of so should I just leave them. It seems for 1 week they are reproducing pretty fast. Can they become harmful to corals or fish or inverts?

Thanks.

Do they look like this?
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/MolluscPI...Stomatella.jpg

If so then they are stomatella snails (that's actually a shell on their back) and they are good for the tank. They also breed like crazy as long as you have no shrimp that eats them

I have tons of them. All they do is eat algae. They hide all day and breed like rabbits!

They look similar to that but without the long whiskers. The ones I have have very short stump like whiskers. The black one has 1 whisker thing thats a little longer than the pale colored ones and this thing is in the middle of its head. Got a good look at it since it decided to hide itself today in the sand against the aquarium glass.

Also I do have a peppermint shrimp does he eat them?

Yeah, unfortunately peppermints and other Lysmata will likely develop a taste for them. Hopefully won't eradicate them out but likely will eat a few of them.

reply
 

I haven't had them since acquiring my pistol shrimp.:sad:

good to know. Thanks everyone.

list of hitchikers and pics

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