leather eating nudi

[sldrdvm]

Ok, so I had a yellow Fiji leather a while back (about a month) and it suddenly turned white and died. I thought I just didn't know what I was doing (too much light, not feeding it enough). I have had this stubby finger leather from SWF for about 2 weeks, and today I noted a bleached out spot on the bottom of it. I thought, here we go again, and decided to move it toward the bottom. Wouldn't you know, I found 3 (THREE!!) coral-eating nudibrachs on the bottom of it!

One is about 1 inch long, the other 2 are about 1/2 an inch. I sucked all three out with a turkey baster. I was just wondering, do you think they're gone? I checked elsewhere under and around all of my soft corals (I have Ricordea, Zoos, finger leather, mushrooms, sun coral, umbrella, brain, and candy cane) but didn't find any more or anything that looked like eggs. (I have pics of them, but I can't find my cable to transfer images from my camera to my computer)

 

[sldrdvm]

By looking on the internet, I found out they were Tritoniopsis elegans nudibrachs

 

[renogaw]

most nudi's have a specific diet, so i wouldn't worry too much about any of your softies but the leathers. hope you don't have eggs...

 

[sldrdvm]

Me too, I looked everywhere around where the leather was and couldn't find anything that looked like eggs.

 

[sldrdvm]

I keep looking for more of these guys...I hope they're all gone.

 

[sldrdvm]

Ok, here are pics finally.

 

[sldrdvm]

Those are all about 1 inch long!

 

[mr.clownfish]

wow thats crazy!

 

[wilsonreef]

man, that's really too bad because they are pretty neat looking.

 

[sldrdvm]

I know, I wish I could keep them. But they are parasites...same as killing fleas and ticks I guess.

 

[salt210]

Id personally be affraid to touch those things. they look evil

 

[sldrdvm]

That's why I didn't touch them. Used a turkey baster and sucked them off the coral/rock.