nudibranch-yes or no

[nodoubt471]

i think these little critters are fascinating. what are their special requirements? i havent been able to find much in the books i have. i was looking at purchasing a lettuce nudibranch from liveaquaria.com. know anything about them? any other good place to get one? and will they be ok with a hatian pink tip anenome? thanx for the help.

 

[Doan]

I hate to be the party pooper but I would recomend shying away from them right now. They all seem to have very specialized eating habits and at this point I think that alot of people are still trying to figure out the best way to maintain them. Also wehn they die they are toxic. But if you are serously looking into them I would suggest starting with the book Coral Reef Animals of the Indo- Pacific by Gosliner, Behrens, and Williams.

Doan

 

[BBReef]

actually, Elysia crispata aka the lettuce nudibranch is photosynthetic and lives kinda the same way as coral, has algae living in its back lives off of the nutrients it gets from it. higher light is preferred but not required as they will sit at the top of the tank during lit hours and will eat at night. they mostly like hair algae but will eat different kinds of brown algea as well.

we have two of them in our 25 gal and they are doing great. they eat a lot of the nuscence algae in our overflow and clean the rocks of mostly all algae. they are pretty much the only nudibranchs (besides the elysia diodomeda, still a lettuce nudi) that i know of that can live in aquaria without starving to death. i have even heard of them spawning in captivity where the guy had to sell the young just to keep the numbers low. HTH

 

[Brisc0]

I was told to be warned of keeping them with an overflow box. I didn't listen. Both my lettuce nudis lasted two weeks. I was able to get one out of the sump and put him back in the display but a week later he didn't make the trip a second time. If you have an overflow with nothing short of a sponge guard on it I wouldn't recommend them.

 

[jerejohnson]

what about overflow pipes? will they climb up the pip and in?

 

[nutrak]

i've lost 200 bucks on nudibranches. lettuce, spanish dancers, purple, blue velvets...you name it. obviously you know my stance.

 

[douggiestyle]

i have a lettuce slug. very active during the day at night it curls up in a ball and rests til the lights come back on. must be due to its photo symbiotic nature. it has gone down the over flow 3 or 4 times. i have a filter pad where the water dumps into the sump. its amazing that he survives for hours of having water dumped on him at a rate of 900 gph. when i peel him off the filter pad hes nothing but a slimey hunk of goo. then plop back in the tank and in minutes hes back to normal. must have some ability to learn as he hasent ended up in the sump for awhile. cant say that he does a good job cleaning algae. cool critter and would recomend one. ive had him for about 2 months. it is my understanding that most slugs do not live for longer than a few months in the wild, so his days are numbered. when he dies i will buy another.

 

[yaksplat]

I accidently cut mine in half when the rocks shifted in my tank. I thought he was done for. That was last week, and he's goign strong. He must have travelled about 3 feet in the tank today. Very interesting creatures. It's almost like they can fly short distances very slowly. I'm not sure if it's an invisible slime trail or what, but it's interesting.

Jim

 

[Brisc0]

he didn't make the trip a second time.

LoL well I did a waterchange yesterday and who do I find in my sump but the nudi I said didn't make it last time he went down! He is back in the tank and looks good for not having much light for about two weeks. If you go with a Nudi make sure he isn't a thrill seeker!

 

[beachbumin]

Ive had one for a few months and have grown to like him but like douggie said hes one his last leg. will buy another soon! Go for it!

 

[douggiestyle]

my lettuce slug finally bit the dust. i am pretty sure it was eaten by my lps coral.
will buy new ones when in stock.