Nudibranchs ??

[donato]

Hey Guys,
Ok, so I'm sitting there watching my tank the other night and I notice this ¾" black slug like animal with white dots on it's dorsal surface crossing the glass. Dots were on the end of 2 tentacles at the head and what looked like lollypop shaped gill plumes towards its rear. I've been told that these animals like to eat coral and should be taken out of my tank before I start putting coral in...but when I read about them in books it says that they are all specialized feeders and stick to certain prey only. So my questions is...have any of you seen these black beauties in your reefs and were they safe with corals...Like I said, I don't have any coral in there now..and they seem to be thriving....but don't know if I should take the chance...you're advice would be appreaciated. Thanks guys!

[ May 15, 2001: Message edited by: Donato ]

 

[mr . salty]

The big problem with these guys is #1 there are lterally hundreds of diferent species of them,and they all pretty much eat only one thig. And they are all diferent.Unless you know exactly whitch one you have,you don't know what they eat.#2 is that none of them live long in captivity.Do a Yahoo search on nudibrachs and see if you can get a possative ID....

 

[donato]

Ok, well I've spend countless hours now going through websites with pictures to find out what kind of nudibranchs these guys are. You're right Mr.Salty..they're too many! I'm just going to play it by ear..I don't want to remove the little critters just yet! Thanks for your help.