Crazy Green Hair Algae eating snai/slug in my sump.

[kryppy]

I have some weird stuff going on in my sump, but this guy takes the cake. I saw him for the first time about a month ago.
He was basically all white. I thought he was a giant nudi. I also thought he was eating GHA, but it is pretty hard to see in there.

Tonight he is back, and he is definitely munching up the green hair algae forest I have going in the sump.

As you can see in the pictures, he has a retractable skin like a Flamingo Tongue.

He can only be from the Florida Keys. Anyone have a clue to his identity??

 

[SaltyDr]

That's some serious GHA!

 

[Peter Eichler]

Looks like a Cowrie of some type, perhaps someone ahs a link to a good source to help identify it.

 

[kryppy]

Two more from when I first spotted him.

 

[xcreonx]

Since you said it's from the Keys, my guess would be Pleurobranchus areolatus. The common name is the Warty Sidegill Slug. Maybe?

 

[AquaReeferMan]

Looks like stomatella snails to me.

 

[xcreonx]

Oh, and does it have a hard shell? It doesn't appear to.

 

[ricanboy57]

I'm almost sure it's a type of cowrie, ecspecialy from pictures 3 & 4. some cowrys can have that sort of spiny soft section over there shells like this guy
http://www.divegallery.com/cowry_cribraria.htm
This might be closer. Atlantic yellow cowrie, with its mantle partially drawn back. Cypraea spurca acicularis
http://chemistry.csudh.edu/faculty/jim/cozaugo4-600/atlantic.jpg
and thats from (http://dive.scubadiving.com/members/tripreports.php?s=2735)

 

[Frick-n-Frags]

I used to have a big cowrie like that. he was awesome. the mantle usually covered the entire shell during normal business hours on the one I had. He was also entirely impervious to any of the stinging critters like the condys with that magic mantle

I got rid of it because it was so raspy, it just ground right through any gorg mats that were in its way. It was kind of sad because otherwise it was a great animal. if i would have had today's setup, he would be loving life on the LR under the layer of chaeto in my chaeto tank.

DING!!! woah that could actually be the answer. I was thinking of throwing a couple Astreas in my chaeto tank just to get what little grows on the rocks and glass (and it does without any cleanup crew whatsoever in a tank-even solidly covered with chaeto) but I'm afraid they will get killed when I stir the chaeto around or clean under rocks etc. There is absolutely no way to lose track of one of those patton tanks

BTW, mine came with LR shipped from key Marathon. The guys added a few things they found like a couple condys, 3 slipper lobsters(nuh-uh, the retards gave me 3 mantis shrimp as I learned later) and that big ole cowrie. this was years ago obviously because the LR was legal then. .