What eats mossy alge???

mytank

Member
I took out all the live rock and spent a whole weekend scrubbing my live rock to get rid of a REALLY bad mossy green alge issue. Now the phosphates are zero and I noticed that the mossy green alge is returning slowly. Is there something that will eat this crap???? I have snails and they spend more time crawling on the glass than on the rocks. And I have a reef tank. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.
 

hagfish

Active Member
Keep in mind that the algae eats nitrates and phosphates for food. If you have algae that is still spreading and your test kits come up with zero's, that's because the algae ate the nutrients before you tested for them. So you may want to keep working on reducing nutrients. But the lettuce slug could help in the mean time.
Bang, will that little guy eat nori (or something else) once the hair algae is gone? I've kinda wanted one, but I don't have much algae right now (which is fine with me) so I don't want it to starve if I get it.
 

mytank

Member
But is it not true that if the lettuce slug dies, then you don't notice it right away then your whole tank will crash. Also, I have anomonies, won't they eat them also? Please respond thanks
 

hagfish

Active Member
There are nudibranches that eat all kinds of things you don't want them to. This isn't one of them I don't think. It is also not poisonous even upon death I believe. Other than ammonia of course.
 

bang guy

Moderator
Originally Posted by hagfish
Bang, will that little guy eat nori (or something else) once the hair algae is gone? I've kinda wanted one, but I don't have much algae right now (which is fine with me) so I don't want it to starve if I get it.
No. The natural food of Lettuce Slugs is Caulerpa, they happen to also be able to eat Bryopsis and other turf algae.
 

bang guy

Moderator
Originally Posted by mytank
But is it not true that if the lettuce slug dies, then you don't notice it right away then your whole tank will crash. Also, I have anomonies, won't they eat them also? Please respond thanks
They will not crash your tank anymore than a large snail would. They are strict herbivores and cannot eat an animal.
 

bang guy

Moderator
Originally Posted by hagfish
There are nudibranches that eat all kinds of things you don't want them to. This isn't one of them I don't think. It is also not poisonous even upon death I believe. Other than ammonia of course.
Lettuce Slugs are not Nudibranch, they are sea slugs. Lettuce Nudibranch is just a common name.
 
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thomas712

Guest
Oh how I love it when Bang Guy does this. If you are a Bang Guy fan and believe like me that we should all have "Bang Guy Fan" bumper stickers. Then you must relieze that when he does this I just have to reach deeper and start leaning more. That man just will not let me relax. I just can't stand it when he pops up and knows more than anyone else. Even his "yep" posts show more detail than mine do
Just ribbing ya Guy.
Well I haven't kept up on my sea slugs and nudibranches, but I believe Guy is correct, some sea slugs are not nudibranches....Its the fire worm / bristle worm whats in a name game.
Even when I was looking up nudibranchs and sea slugs, I found that it used to be this taxonomy and that taxonomy which tells me that debates had not been settled. Believe it or not in this world we live in that we are still discovering things and classifiying them.
So whats the big difference: Now's my chance to cut and paste and be a big blow hard.
And now without further adue, more than you ever wanted to know about the difference between Nudibranch and sea slugs.
Description: Nudibranch
These sea slugs are jelly-bodied snails. The adult form is without a shell or operculum (= bony plate covering the opening of the shell, when the body is withdrawn).
The word ‘nudibranch’ comes from New Latin "Nudibranchia". The Latin word "nudus", means

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, and the Greek word "branchia" means gills. Thus, nudibranch translates to "

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gills", which is appropriate since the dorids breathe through a branchial plume, bushy extremities on their back, rather than using gills. On the back of the aeolids are three brightly colored sets of tentacles called cerata.
Nudibranchs have cephalic (i.e. situated on the head) tentacles, which are sensitive to touch, taste, and smell (club-shaped rhinophores detect the odors).
They are hermaphroditic, but cannot fertilize themselves. They are carnivorous. Some feed on sponges, others on hydroids, others on bryozoans, and some are cannibals, eating members of their own species. There is also a group that feeds on tunicates and barnacles.
Body forms can vary wildly. They lack a mantle cavity. Their size varies from 4 mm to 60 cm.
They occur worldwide at all depths, but they reach their greatest size and variation in warm, shallow waters.
Among them, you can find the most colorful creatures on earth. Because sea slugs, in the course of evolution, have lost their shell, they had to evolve another means of defense: camouflage, through color patterns that make them invisible (= cryptic behavior) or warn off predators as being distasteful or poisonous (= aposematic behavior). Champions in their colorful display are the Chromodorids.
Taxonomy
The taxonomy of the Nudibranchia is still evolving. Many taxonomists used to treat the Nudibranchia as an order, based on the authoritative work of J. Thiele (1931), who built on the concept of Milne-Edwards (1848). But new insights through morphological data and gene-sequence research, cause some confidence in the congruence of the data sets of the new and the old.
·Subclass Orthogastropoda Ponder & Lindberg, 1997 (earlier Prosobranchia, Opisthobranchia)
Superorder Heterobranchia J.E. Gray, 1840
Order Opisthobranchia Milne-Edwards, 1848
Suborder Nudibranchia Blainville, 1814 (nudibranchs)
Infraorder Anthobranchia Férussac, 1819 (dorids)
Superfamily Doridoidea Rafinesque, 1815
Superfamily Doridoxoidea Bergh, 1900
Superfamily Onchidoridoidea Alder & Hancock, 1845
Superfamily Polyceroidea Alder & Hancock, 1845
Infraorder Cladobranchia Willan & Morton, 1984 (aeolids)
Superfamily Aeolidioidea J. E. Gray, 1827
Superfamily Arminoidea, Rafinesque, 1814
Superfamily Dendronotoidea Allman, 1845
Superfamily Metarminoidea Odhner in Franc, 1968
The dorids (infraorder Anthobranchia) have following characteristics : the branchial plume forms a cluster on the posterior part of the back, around the anus. Fringes on the mantle do not contain any intestines.
The aeolids (infraorder Cladobranchia) have the following characteristics : Instead of the branchial plume, they have cerata. They lack a mantle. Only species of the Cladobranchia are reported to house zooxanthellae.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Mollusca
Class:Gastropoda
Subclass:Orthogastropoda
Superorder:Heterobranchia
Order:Opisthobranchia
Suborder:Nudibranchia
*see next post
 
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thomas712

Guest
And now the sea slug:
In zoology, the Opisthobranchia (Milne Edwards, 1848) (also known as opisthobranchs) used to be a subclass of gastropods, within the phylum Mollusca, but they are now treated as an order.
They are highly evolved gastropods, characterised by a single gill behind the heart, from which the subclass derives its name (Greek opistho-, behind; brankhia, gills) and two pairs of tentacles.
They are principally soft-bodied marine creatures with a small or absent shell and no operculum. Their bodies have undergone detorsion, an evolutionary reversal of the 180° torsion of their immediate ancestors. They have essentially evolved back to the bilateral linear symmetry of their primitive ancestors. There is no marked distinction between head and mantle. The tentacles, situated close to the mouth, are used for orientation. Behind them you can find the rhinophores, olfactory organs often with complex forms. The middle part of the foot is the sole, used for locomotion. The sides of the foot have evolved into parapodia, fleshy winglike outgrowths. In several suborders, such as the Thecosomata and Gymnosomata, these parapodia are used to move in a swimming motion.
Many have brilliant colours, warning their predators to stay away. These wonderful creatures are hard to study, because their presence is so transitory, turning up, sometimes in very large numbers, at unexpected moments.
Members of this order include what are commonly known as sea slugs and more specifically groups such as the canoe shells, sea butterflies, sea hares, and nudibranchs.
The taxonomy of the gastropods, and their phylogenetic understanding has been evolving rapidly in the last few years. The old classification (J. Thiele 1929-1935), with the class Gastropoda divided into three subclasses Prosobranchia, Opisthobranchia and Pulmonata, is no longer accepted. It is speculated that the Opisthobranchia may be paraphyletic (Haszprunar, 1985), having given rise to the Pulmonata, although evidence is still somewhat disputed. Pulmonata may be the sister group to a particular opisthobranch taxon. The Opisthobranchia are therefore a non-clade and can no longer be accepted as a taxon. They are now included in the subclass Orthogastropoda, where they have become an order. More information is given under the entry Gastropoda.
However, one can still encounter this old classification in many manuals (older and newer) and on most websites.
The term ‘opisthobranch’, when not describing the order, can still be used in a descriptive way, meaning ‘a gastropod with the “gills to the right and behind the heart”
Taxonomy
Order Opisthobranchia Milne-Edwards, 1848 (sea slugs)
Suborder Cephalaspidea P. Fischer, 1883 (headshield slugs)
Suborder Sacoglossa Von Ihering, 1876 (sap-sucking slugs)
Suborder Anaspidea P. Fischer, 1883 (sea hares)
Suborder Notaspidea P. Fischer, 1883 (sidegill slugs)
Suborder Thecosomata Blainville, 1824 (sea butterflies)
Suborder Gymnosomata Blainville, 1824 (sea angels)
Suborder Nudibranchia Blainville, 1814 (nudibranchs)
Infraorder Anthobranchia Férussac, 1819
Infraorder Cladobranchia Willan & Morton, 1984
Scientific classification:
Kingdom:Animalia
Subkingdom:Metazoa
Phylum:Mollusca
Class:Gastropoda
Subclass:Orthogastropoda
Superorder:Heterobranchia
Order:OpisthobranchiaMilne-Edwards, 1848
Suborders:
Cephalaspidea
Sacoglossa
Anaspidea
Notaspidea
Thecosomata
Gymnosomata
Nudibranchia
Infraorder :
Anthobranchia
Infraorder :
Cladobranchia
So whats the end result of this blow hard article. Bang's going to come back on and post one single word.
"Yep"

Thomas
 
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tizzo

Guest
Ok, so in short will a "sea slug" let go and fly around the tank to inevitabley get sucked up and killed by the nearest PH or filter?? Or do they hold on like snails.
I can't get one, but if I did would I have to "babyproof" my tank first, like I would a nudi??
 
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thomas712

Guest
The suborder Sacoglossa are the "sap-sucking slugs". Many members of this group sequester chloroplasts from the algae they eat, a phenomenon known as kleptoplasty. This earns them the title of the "solar-powered sea slugs", and makes them unique among animals.
Dang it, :mad: he has me learning again.
 

acrylic300

Member
When mine disappears for a few days its time to check the over-flow. It's amazing what they can go through.
First time I found him on the pre-filter he had been missing over a week. It looked like a brown ball of snot--as I was thumping him into the toilet I saw some movement.
I put it back into the tank and he was back to normal and colored up in a day or so.
 

nazz13

Member
You guys never actually answered the poor guys original ques. about the algea. Sea slug is the best you can do.
 
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thomas712

Guest
Originally Posted by nazz13
You guys never actually answered the poor guys original ques. about the algea. Sea slug is the best you can do.

When your right your right.
First of all a good cleanup crew consting of herbivors.
Lawnmower blenny, Tang, sea hair, sea slug lettuce variety.
Most of all controlling your nitrates and phosphates and using RO/DI water, as well as running a phosphate sponge, and regular water changes, also controlling your feeding habits as well as what you feed.
Thomas
 
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