Yup that’s exactly the little fellow I have. If you read up they RARELY wipe out algae and will only slow it’s growth. I’d love for the pair I have to wipe out the algae, but they seem to be quite the slackers and the turbo snails seem to do a much better job. Although they sit and poop for days. If some time in the future my tank becomes low in algae I’ll sell off the nudi’s (slugs).
And are you STILL talk about your QT lol.
Yup looks like they are sea slugs. Oh well! I like the name Lettuce nudibranch and will continue to live convinced its a nudi! (besides the gf likes calling them that)
So technically they are nudibranchs. Since their ruffles on the back are for both photosynthesis and for gas exchange (gills) and they are not covered.
No, the gill aparatus in Elaysia sp. are not exposed as they are in true nudibranchs. While some exchange does occour across their membranes, the gill structure resides inside their body. As an interesting note with these, I have had a good deal of expierence with breeding and raising them. They are simultaneous hermaphrodites, which means that any 2 can make more if they feel the mood. They will leave spirals of eggs on the glass or rock that look like little white dots that are connected to one another, each about the size of a “.” As long as you dont have very strong filtration on the tank (ie enough to kill the adults) the larve should settle out from 1-4 weeks after hatching. From what I have observed, they generally take 3 days to a week to hatch (I think it depends on temp). It takes about a month to grow to near full size, and the young bred for me at about 3-4 months in age.
Icy, you should breed them on a regular basis for all the hair algae culturists in the club. you could make a small fortune.
on another note. i once bought a leather coral that had a bunch of snowy white nudi-branchs hiding in the rock. they would come out at night and eat the coral. i tossed them out right away and fortunately they hadnt left eggs. real pretty though. had the tall fins that looked just like white snow flakes all over their backs. but they only eat soft corals.
I have thought about doing it, but they are pretty inexpensive anywhere and all I need is one more tank set up in the house even thought they are extremley low maintnaince. (Top off with tap water daily and thats IT)
Didn’t know the lettuce nudibranchs bred so well in captivity, hopefully my pair will as well.
I think the peppermint is going to feed my tank tonight. Shes been fluffing her swimerettes every 30 or so seconds and looks like she is about to pop. You can also kinda make out spheres in her belly. Hard to tell cause shes hiding under a rock.
3 times!! 3 times so far that stupid lettuce sea slug ‘nudibranch’ has went into the skimmer through the over flow and landed in the tray entering the wet/dry sump. 3 times you would think he learned his lesson! This time when I threw him back in he actually floated over to PH, went through the intake and out the other side…he was still alive!
The peppermint looked like it had its babies on day, but still is fat like it looks like it still has some babies in it, just not as large. Jon I know you mentioned some parasitic isopods, how is a good way to check? The other peppermint doesn’t look effected. (infected)
Isopods are a larger crustacean isopod and as far as I understand can only reproduce by leaving the animal, so it wouldn’t be surprising if one animal was infected and not the other. I’ll see if I can figure out a definitive way to ID them.
Meanwhile the next time you’re at a reputable LFS pick up “The Pocket guide to inverts” and look for isopods. There are some close up pictures of them inside shrimp.
Make that 4 times. After the ‘nudis’ trip last night you would think he would learn, but I couldn’t find him today. So while moving the tank/sump (eek) we found him. He made it through the skimmer, overflow, wet/dry tray, and bio balls into the sump. Screw it, hes staying there.
Jon, thanks for the info. I’ll try to check out that book. I’ll see if I can get some good pics of the shrimp.
Ian, that is why most of the time Lettuce Sea Slugs dont do well in reef tanks. They are good in theroy, but they have a habit of going into powerheads, HOB filters, skimmers and the like and never coming back out. To sucessfully keep them you need to cover all intakes and even then its not 100% certian they wont get stuck.
Its funny cause the one never goes near that stuff and the other is like addicted to it. Anyway we found him in the sump (wet/dry) and apparently while we were moving the tank/sump over he tried to climb up inbetween the bioball cage and the sump wall and while we were moving it the bioball cage crushed him against the sump. Poor fella, I really wanted to see if him and the other would mate.