what is this?

fishmaster78

fishmaster78

Member
Can anyone tell me what this is? I recently discovered it roaming around my live rock the other day. My tank has been established for about 8 months now and all the water parameters are right in line. Any suggestions?
 
fishmaster78

fishmaster78

Member
i'm thinking its a nudibranch....so if i see it again i will be discarding it....anyone want it? free to anyone near ventura,ca
 
snakeblitz33

snakeblitz33

Well-Known Member
It might be a zoa eating nudibranch. If it were my tank, I'de pull it out and put it in a fish only tank. (I can't bear to kill a saltwater creature, lol) I'm curious if Bang Guy could come in here and give some wisdom...
 
S

saxman

Guest
It's definitely an Aeolid nudi and they feed on corals, particularly zoanthids. They belong to the same family as the coveted Berghia nudi which feed on Aiptasia. Remove any you find, and be sure to check the stalks of your zo's for the telltale spiral egg masses which you should also remove. You should also be on watch for any that may hatch for awhile.
Here's a link to a pictorial hitchhiker guide that has a better pic of the critter as well as a pic of the egg mass: http://www.lionfishlair.com/hitchhiker/hitchhiker.shtml
Scroll down to "Nudibranch-Predatory #2"
 
fishmaster78

fishmaster78

Member
yes it took a couple of days to find it as you can see my tank is fully stocked and not a whole lot of roam for those little garbage faced junkheads so it was difficult to find. now i'm going to start really looking hard to see if i can find any eggs it may have left behind.
 
fishmaster78

fishmaster78

Member
well once you think the problem is gone....its really just still there. I've now found and destroyed...sorry snake....four of these creatures...is there any type of chemical i can add to the tank without killing the corals and finally kill all of them?
 
S

saxman

Guest
The problem is you'd have to keep nuking your tank, because I don't think there's anything that kills their eggs, so you'll still have to catch the nudi-lets.
 
fishmaster78

fishmaster78

Member
as of now i've only noticed them munching on my zoos. I had a pretty nice flourishing colony approx 75 heads that is probably around 40 heads now. i've now killed 5 of these guys.
 
S

saxman

Guest
You might want to dip all your zo's...I'm sure one of the reefer folks can tell you what they use these days.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Quote:
Originally Posted by fishmaster78 http:///t/388978/what-is-this#post_3435796
as of now i've only noticed them munching on my zoos. I had a pretty nice flourishing colony approx 75 heads that is probably around 40 heads now. i've now killed 5 of these guys.
Most Nudibranch are very specific in what they eat so if you moved your Zoanthids to a quaranteen tank it would serve two purposes. One - you can closely monitor the colony and remove any Nudis you see fairly easily and two - any Nudis left behind in the display tank will starve out fairly quickly.
 
fishmaster78

fishmaster78

Member
i think this would be a simple task if my colonies were glued to individual live rock pieces, however the live rock in my tank is one large piece of live rock...any other suggestions??
 
fishmaster78

fishmaster78

Member
Thank you! but now you can see that the method in which you describe which would be ideal....doesn't necessarily work for me? i'm in need to a solution in tank, or i just have to keep staring into my tank everyday....darn.
 
S

saxman

Guest
The only other choice you have is manual removal...if you didn't care about the inverts (snails, coral, shrimp), you could dose the tank with fenbendazole which will likely kill the nudis, however, you can't dose the tank and not affect the corals.
 
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