A Tiny Nudibranch Surfaces...

[Rosseau]

Maybe 3mm in length, I found this guy crawling up my glass yesterday. You can sort of tell the size by its reflection.

They are extremely diverse creatures with a wide range of colours (even this relatively un-interesting little white one).

I'll be pretty happy when one of these crawls out of my rocks. ^^

 

[Rosseau]

dp.

 

[Rosseau]

Any idea if this animals will grow larger into something known in aquaria?

 

[greenbean36191]

Yours is a tritoniid of some sort, and is likely a coral predator since all of them eat cnidarians. It might grow into something larger, but you probably don't want it to.

 

[Rosseau]

Argh... Thanks. I should have grabbed it.


Hmm...

 

[LeslieH]

Looks like a baby Tritoniopsis elegans to me. Definite predator on a variety of corals. If you go to the Sea Slug Forum & check out the webpage for this species you'll see many posts about it being found in aquariums. Having one juvenile in your tank may mean there's many so do a careful check of your corals for both slugs & eggs.
http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet.cfm?base=triteleg

The second one you pictured is Hermissenda crassicornis from the northeast Pacific. It eats a variety of other organisms: sea pens, hydroids, jelly fish polyps, anemones, tunicates, other nudibranchs, and has even been seen eating squid , mussels, & clams. Not really something you want in your tank!

 

[Rosseau]

Thanks for the info Leslie. You sure seem to konw your marine inverts! I'm a little jealous of that... I'm tempted to find a career over that way.


I'll look into this potential problem nudibranch.

 

[LeslieH]

marine biologists make lousy money.......