Opinions requested on Nudibranch

[Scoot]

I had a good-sized nudibranch apparently hitchhike on some LR rock, and somehow he found his way into my sump. No idea how he go in there, all I have in the sump are little bits of rubble, chaeto (which has been in there for a long time) and crushed coral substrate.

He's a good-sized bugger (for never having seen him before 2 days ago), and even survived moving to another sump by somehow hiding out on my skimmer's pump, even though it was thoroughly rinsed off before going into the new sump. Very sneaky.

Anyway, I'm getting mixed opinions on it - keeping it or removing it.

What's everybody's opinion on keeping a critter like this?

 

[dskidmore]

Keep it at least until you can identify it or figure out what it's eating. Nudibranch typically have a very narrow diet, and can be useful pest eaters if you have the right kind. The wrong kind will decide your favorite coral is it's favorite food source, and then you need to ditch him.

Has there been any evidence of what he eats?

 

[Scoot]

He's in the sump/fuge, so no worries about eating anything from the tank. My biggest concern is him poisoning the tank.

He's in the skimmer area, where there's very little there to eat but the detrius the comes in from the main tank through the overflow (which is not much since I run a sponge in the overflow. There's a couple hermit crabs in that area that have (for the last 2 weeks) have been keeping that area very clean. I haven't seen him try to move to the fuge area. There's not much algae in there right now (new sump/fuge as of yesterday). My old one, though, was an algae haven.

 

[seaham358]

I'm 90% sure its a seahare, they eat algae and will starve in a new tank. it needs a tank with a nieusance problem like HA. They go for around $20 in the LFS, DO NOT FLUSH... Give him to someone in your area that can use it or take to LFS for credit.
Can you get a better pic with a flash so you can get a !00% ID.

 

[Scoot]

He's hiding up between the glass and the bubble box for my skimmer - as soon as he comes out I'll take some more pics.