Abalone or Limpet?

[lashilia]

I read the FAQ and am still sketchy about this little critter that has been eating algae like a turbo for the past few months. I have been calling it an abalone, but it may be a limpet. I just want to know what you guys thought.

The FAQ mentions limpets, but I need to see pictures, and this guy is a little bitty thing. Please don't yell at me! I am new at IDing snails! I know very little about them except turbos.

He is bold now and comes out in the day. He is very fast too, booking up and down the glass in no time.

I took him out and snapped his picture in a holding thing. Here it is:

 

[Anonymous]

Neither.
Looks like a Stomatella spp.

Regards,
David Mohr

 

[lashilia]

I looked this guy up, and that is it! Awesome! Anyone have any info/pointers?

 

[Anonymous]

I partially agree with David here...it looks like a Stomatella at first glance. On the left side of the shell it looks like there is a row of holes though. Maybe I'm misunderstanding what I'm seeing. But as far as I know the row of holes in the shell is unique to abalones. Stomatella don't have them.

Either way, not a limpet.

Abalone shell

Stomatella shell

 

[Anonymous]

I partially agree with David here...it looks like a Stomatella at first glance. On the left side of the shell it looks like there is a row of holes though. Maybe I'm misunderstanding what I'm seeing. But as far as I know the row of holes in the shell is unique to abalones. Stomatella don't have them.

Either way, not a limpet.

Could be but I seriously doubt it.

He is bold now and comes out in the day. He is very fast too, booking up and down the glass in no time.

Classic Stomatella behavior; members of Haliotidae (Abalones) are nocturnal.

In their natural habitat abalones are browsers, moving along in a mainly uninterrupted gliding motion aided in their locomotion by the creeping sole of their muscular foot. As light evading animals abalone attach themselves to shady parts of rocks with this foot which has a suction force of more than 4000 times that of their own body weight.

Haliotids are herbivores, feeding almost solely upon algae and small sea weeds which they grind from the rocks. Never travelling far from the place where they first settled, abalone usually prefer to dwell in places on the seabed where drift weed is conveniently carried along by a gentle current. Seaweed, bryozoa and sponge form a covering on the outer shell of the abalone, providing it with handy camouflage.


Regards,
David Mohr

 

[Anonymous]

All good points. But you know you can't make an ID on behavior Otherwise we wouldn't need pics.

If we could get a clearer shot of the shell it could confirm it one way or the other. David, do you know if the holes are unique to Haliotis? I've heard that in passing but never really confirmed it.

 

[Anonymous]

WOW...slightly off topic but cool looking shell!

Haliotis scalaris

 

[Anonymous]

All good points. But you know you can't make an ID on behavior Otherwise we wouldn't need pics.

Agree to some degree, but with an adequate description of the animal and its behavior it's possible to ID without a picture. Some of the pictures I see are worse than no picture at all, though this is an excellent picture just not definitive so I'm going by picture (description) and behavior.

If we could get a clearer shot of the shell it could confirm it one way or the other. David, do you know if the holes are unique to Haliotis? I've heard that in passing but never really confirmed it.

Agree on a closer picture. Yes holes on the left margin of the shell are unique to Haliotis and tentacle like outgrowths, which have a sensory function, protrude from these holes.
I don't see these in that picture.

Regards,
David Mohr

 

[Anonymous]

All this ab talk has me thinking about renting a wetsuit and going down to the coast Have you ever had one David?

 

[Anonymous]

All this ab talk has me thinking about renting a wetsuit and going down to the coast Have you ever had one David?

Oh a few hundred times or so, but unfortunately at my age and with arthritis it is a thing of the past.
btw If this is in fact an Abalone, lashilia most certainly would have had an extremely hard time removing the foot from the surface it was on, thereby severely damaging the animal.

Regards,
David Mohr

 

[Anonymous]

Hmm, agreed to a certain extent. The little ones are pretty easy to take off though. I've pulled off a few quarter sized ones with just fingers. And stomatella are pretty hard to pull off w/o damaging as well. Easier to just let them crawl onto something.

Wanna bet 100 useless sump bucks on it?

 

[Anonymous]

Wanna bet 100 useless sump bucks on it?

Useless! 8O
I've been using them to buy pizza and beer in the RDO Lounge. 8)
You're on.

Regards,
David Mohr

 

[Oceans Ferevh]

Ok, newbie question...what's a sump buck :?: