Slug, Nudibranch or snail??

[smoney]

Yesterday I bought 4 pretty big snails and that in mind, i went to turn on my fish tank lights this morning and found this, what looked to be a huge nudibranch(about 4 inches), is it possible a nudibranch can take a snails shell or is it possible that a snail can loose his shell, or what any ideas?

 

[rangermonroe]

A picture is worth a whole buncha words!

 

[lion_crazz]

A snail can definitely lose its shell, but it would not be 4 inches. Likewise, a nudibranch could have hidden inside a snail shell, but I doubt that a 4 inch nudibranch would fit in a snail shell. Do you have any live rock? Perhaps it came into the tank from the live rock.

 

[smoney]

I havent seen the darn thing in my tank after that one incident(so i cant take a pic of it), but yes i do have live rock, but i would have noticed this aong time ago ive had the rock for 3 months.

 

[lion_crazz]

Originally posted by SMoney
i would have noticed this aong time ago ive had the rock for 3 months.
Not neccessarily. Who knows if you will ever see it again. It could have been in your live rock for that three months, but just never came out when you had the lights on or were looking at the tank.

 

[dillybobs]

If your critter was very flat Id say a polyclad.
Bang guy posted a picture of a polyclad in my thread titled, "polyclad removal?" Take a look. and hope its not what you have.

 

[smoney]

hey man You were right I think thats what it was, i took a look at this polyclad thingy, and it looked like that but bigger whats the sitch on them are they good or bad or what?

 

[dillybobs]

They are BAD. They love to eat snails. You may have noticed a few empty shells.
You need to remove them, and thats a pain. You noticed I said them, if you have one close to 4", you proply have a few of them buy now.
Best I can tell you is hunt them at night after the lights go out. Net them when they are on the sand or glass. Don't break them apart! They don't like the light,and they can slip into the smallest of holes. Sounds like a remake of gremlins.
Please: If you fined a better way to get rid of them, let me know in the "polyclad removal thread"