Nudibranch Hitchiker!!! Is it bad?

[timbodmb]

Could this be why my favia is being stressed? I found this green nudibranch on my zoos which have not been opening for the last 2 weeks... they are slowly dying! Help someone identify!!!

 

[timbodmb]

Found it... its a zoo eating Nudi!!!!!

 

[nvsbandit]

lol all these horror stories of hitchikers make me nervous to buy anything lolz.
o well.
to bad you couldnt keep him his neat looking.

 

[teresaq]

fresh water dip for your zoos, and look for little white swurls, those are the eggs. be sure to pick them off and keep a close eye on them
those will eat all your zoos.
T

 

[ophiura]

It would be very unusual to get a "good" hitch hiker nudibranch I am afraid. Look for more.

 

[candycane]

Yeah, it looks like a Phyllodesmium longicirra unfortunetely. Cool looking bugger. Usually can tell by the color. From what I have seen of them, they will actually inherit the color of a coral they eat for some odd reason (and this may only last for a short period of time). Most of the corals that they eat utilize Zooxanthellae. Don't know if there is any connection there.

 

[fireangel]

I discovered those same little guys in pink, orange and green in my 55 gallon reef about a month ago. Not sure where they came from. Haven't bought any new coral in about 4 months and that was a sponge. They definitely take the color of the zoanthids they are eating. Fortunately I caught them in time and they haven't done any noticeable damage. I can't take my zoa out to dip because they are all over every rock in my tank. What I do to remove them, is stay up every night with a flashlight and turkey baster and suck everyone out that I see. In the beginning I was collecting 20-30 adults a night. After about about a week I couldn't find anymore... until the eggs hatched and you see tiny ones all over. You have to tweeze off any eggs that you see. To make the eggs easier to see, I used the baster to lightly blow water over my zoa until they shrink. Otherwise you can't see the egg swirl on the side of an individual polyp. That also helps to find these guys because if the zoa are all closed up and you still see frilly polyps, chances are that it's one of those nudes. Very tedious work and I am still finding one or two here and there (just enough to keep there population going

). Anyone know of anything that might eat these creatures and not harm corals??? Until then I'm off to fight what seems to be a never ending battle.

 

[timbodmb]

This one was only about 2mm in size... does that mean I most likely have more coming? UGH!!! It never ends!!!

 

[timbodmb]

FOUND ANOTHER!!!!!

 

[fireangel]

Unfortunatly if you have already found a few adults and smaller ones, than you will probably find a lot more soon. Mine started out as finding one, one night...then a population explosion and the battle begins. I'm hoping that with nightly removal, I will eventually stop all the adults from laying more eggs and eventually break their life cycle. Good luck to us both!

 

[timbodmb]

Well, It's been a while since I updated... I haven't found any since the last two, but my eyes are open. The colony really took a beating as you can see. The entire right hand side is no longer except for 1-2 polyps. Any way I can make them grow faster???