Abalone - Aquacultured - anybody ever try to keep?

[Greg Hiller]

I tried once many years ago, but it didn't live long. The reason I'm considering this is that even with 'honkin' big snails, the trigger in my tank at work is managing to knock them off the walls.

They have them at a few places, genera Haliotis.

I was also thinking about limpets, or maybe chitons. I've come across chitons on the rocks at low tide in tropical locals that were essentially impossible to pry off the rocks.

 

[fanaglethebagle]

At MACNA ORA was telling us about their new line of abalone. Thy sound neat, but kind of expensive ~20 bucks a pop

 

[JeremyR]

I was thinking about trying the ORA abalones.. the problem I had when we got them in the past was that they are hard to pry off the glass to sell them without killing them.

 

[revkev6]

I've never used abalone but I do have 5-6 limpets in my tank that came as hitchikers on some carribean liverock I got (even had a chiton but haven't seen him since I've added more stock to my tank). The limpets are just about impossible to remove from the rock or glass with crushing the shell. if You can find them they do a pretty good job. in two years they've grown from 1/4" dots to 3/4" oblong coraline munchers

the 5-6 limpets I have look like what you normally find when you google "limpets" I have just recently had another limpet show up on my glass starting late last spring. This guy looks just like an "owl limpet" and is VERY flat. it's starting to grow more rapidly and eats algae better than any other critter I have. You can see a perfectly clear path where he roams. there is NO way anything could get it off the glass short of a razorblade.

 

[ReeferMedic]

I've tried them in the past. Never had any long term success with them. They are alomost impossible to pry off the glass without using a credit card to get them to release.

 

[fanaglethebagle]

I was thinking about trying the ORA abalones.. the problem I had when we got them in the past was that they are hard to pry off the glass to sell them without killing them.

How about plating the walls with acrylic squares and selling the acrillic with the snail on them?

 

[Greg Hiller]

>How about plating the walls with acrylic squares and selling the acrillic with the snail on them?<

I was even thinking about holding some pieces of shipping bags in place on the glass with magnets.

 

[LuckyReefer]

AG has some chitons..

 

[JeremyR]

We have really awesome black flowing mantle limpets in our tanks, but they are reclusive and really hard to get off too.

 

[Greg Hiller]

Hmmm...those sound really cool. I wish you guys were closer.

 

[naturebatslast]

Aren't abalone voracious algae eaters? I remember seeing something on albalone farming and they were feeding minimums 40 to 50 pounds of kelp a week for at least hundred individuals per box. Maybe starvation could be an issue for hobbyist.
Prying them off, they were using something like a 6" flat flexible plastic, slid all the way under the foot.
Chitons would be great though.

 

[delta]

We had one for a little over a year it was a great algea eater but they are much more active eaters in colder water. Nocturnal eater, it used to park it self under the rock work during the day.

We lost ours to an overfill of top off water, rapid salinity drop