What's Dis??

[slothy]

Just kill it.. no harm in that eh ? hehe... wow there are alot of neat colored slugs...
oh ya btw Rye your link is live on my site now

 

[sistrmary]

Well, I did a bit of digging, and other than the color, it looks a lotsa like this:
http://www.sea-slug.com/species/umiusi039.htm
The only problem is that I can't read the language it's written in so I can't tell you a thing about it lol

 

[sistrmary]

Oh oh I found an english site!!!! I'm scared :x I want it to live beacuse it's so pretty!!! But it doesn't look good Rye...
http://www.seaslugforum.net/tritfryd.htm

 

[ryebread]

Holy Crap!! My leather coral has just died in the last three days after thriving for months. Should I get this thing outta the tank? Drop it in the QT or the GD? (Garbage Disposal)

 

[msb27]

Any idea where it came from??
Scott

 

[ryebread]

I will check as best I can but, I have not added corals for months. How is it that this guy is just now popping up?

 

[sistrmary]

Well, he probably came in on your coral, and was small enough to live in the rock where no one saw it. As it grows more, it eats more, and the coral was no longer able to keep up with it's rampant eating patterns. You're probably seeing it now because it's out scouting around, looking for food now that it finished off the leather coral.

 

[sistrmary]

Although I don't know...it says that it feeds on Gorgonian Plexaurella sp...sea fans? Maybe your leather was a substitute fare for it? Although they don't typically take substitutes...which is why they die so much in our tanks.

 

[ryebread]

UH OH!!! I just went to catch the rascal and it darted behind the Live Rock........yes darted! I guess I will have to see what happens. The info the I have seen (thanx to sistrMary) says that the only thing they eat is soft leathers. Well, it already ate mine. So maybe I have a new pet.

 

[ryebread]

It is actually a Tritoniopsis Elegans like skilos1 mentioned, part of the family of the Tritoniopsis Frydis. The Frydis likes the sponges but, this one likes the leathers.

 

[sistrmary]

I was wrong Rye...it seems there are two nearly identical species (well, probably more..but two that looks exactly like yours...except this one...eats leathers.)
http://www.seaslugforum.net/triteleg.htm
There's your boy I'm thinking.

 

[sistrmary]

ROFL You figured out that I'm a liarbutt at the same time that I did :x How long have you had the leather? I'm guessing that it came in on it...you've got an extremely rare circumstance here Rye...you've identified your nudi, and you know exactly what it eats. If you have the money to support it's food source, I really would keep it in a species tank..or even in your main tank, since it only eats one thing.

 

[ryebread]

Yeah, I just figured that out on the post above your last one. Thanx for helping me figure it out. I could hardly look at any more of those sea slugs before I went a little crazy.
"No beer or T.V. makes Homer something, something."
"Go Crazy?"
"Don't mind if I do!!"

 

[ryebread]

Wait! You just figured out that I figured out that you figured out the thingy.......but, it was the wrong thingy. I've got you figured. I had my leather for nearly for over three months.

 

[sistrmary]

Well...it sounds horrible, but it's about full grown now, if you got a bigger leather...or perhaps two or three (so that it could eat from one, and then another, and they'd have time to re-grow) then you culd keep it as a wonderful pet that stumped everyone on the SWF.com forums (Okay, I just want you to keep the pretty little thing alive! I know, I'm horrible!! Horrible horrible! I'm just a nudi nut. I think they're the coolest things, but I also know how rare it is to find exactly what they eat and keep it alive in the aquarium)

 

[ryebread]

I plan to keep it. I have a guy that owns the LFS that I go to and I take lots of photos for him. He will gladly give me baby leather frags to feed it. This ended up being a pretty cool find...... even if it is a predator.

 

[sistrmary]

/me does the Home Alone kid "yes!" Good! It really is pretty! Congratulations! I'm glad you decided against the garbage disposal! Actually, finding out that you had this is good, because now you don't have to kick yourself (as we all do when a coral dies) over the leather and wonder "WTH Did I do wrong?! It looked so good two stinkin days ago!"

 

[ryebread]

Okay, Your not going to believe this crap. There are two of them!! I just found some of the dead leather pieces on some LR and underneath was another nudi. This one is not quite as big but, it is much brighter and it was moving all over very quickly. I tried (and failed) to take a pic but he/she/it/thingy was camera shy. Maybe later. This is pretty cool. How much do you think something like this would cost if it were for sale? Just curious. I might have a breeding pair on my hands..........ew......get them off my hands.

 

[sistrmary]

Er...Rye I don't know that you want that. They're hermaphrodites. If there are two, and they are drastically different sizes...I'd put money on you having more than two. It's been in there 3 months...the same as the other...ask yourself why it's small while the other is larger. Perhaps your leather was enough to support two of them...but perhaps they laid eggs. (Which they're actually well known for doing. It's just the problem of feeding the babies) You might want to look a bit closer, search around for more smaller ones. Although it could just be that one was larger than the other to begin with...but it makes me wonder a bit.
If someone had enough money, I'd bet they'd pay quite a bit for them.

 

[ryebread]

I'm scared now. I have been looking for the past couple of hours and don't see anything else but, I didn't see these things for several months before today. Hmmm........ It says that they are pretty common on the Sea Slug Forum. Common?!?! Nobody has even heard of them here including many experienced reefers....... I don't know what to do.