Experience Keeping Nudibranchs in closed systems

[pledosophy]

I have done quite a few styles of tanks. Seahorse, LPS, Planted, and now I love my mixed reef. But I want to try something very different for my office tank and was thinking of setting up a nudibranch paradise and getting several of them for a 30g ish cube.

Does anyone have experience keeping them? Anything I should know? Any tips on foods/tankmates/compatible corals. How to keep the flow low so they don't go down the sump etc.

Any help to my start on this journey would be great! Thanks

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Sounds like a cool project. Following along. There is a place in Florida I believe that sells several different nudi's. There is also a website that is all about nudi's I just don't remember the name but if you Google Nudibranch you will find it. Nudi's are beautiful but IMO most aren't welcome in a Reef tank.

 

[pledosophy]

The sea slug forum is the only site I know that used to have info but they closed in 2010. I couldn't find anyone keeping them currently with a succsess for more then 6 months (which is a fail actually)

Getting the specimens is easy, it's making sure I give them an environment where they can thrive, and if there lifespan is so short, breed.

 

[Bongo Shrimp]

What species would you be trying to keep? Other than lettuce or blue velvet nudis (or some pest nudis) you wouldn't be able to provide them with the proper food source to keep them long term due to their highly specific feeding requirements. That's not to say that lettuce nudis, velvet nudis, or even some pest nudis are not very cool though. I always thought it would be cool to keep a bunch of cheap but colorful zoas in a tank full of zoa eating nudis so the nudis would ingest the bright zooxanthellae and fluoresce under blue light.

 

[Bent]

X2 on the zoa eating ones.

And actually those or the herbies would be your only two feasible options as the others usually eat such specialized diets that I have no idea how you would get it.

I'd love to have a Spanish dancer btw. If you can figure out how to do that long term, with an emperor shrimp, that would be the crown jewel of aquarium animals.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Check out these images on Google Image. This one is just one of the cool ones out of many with a really cool hitchhiker

https://www.google.com/search?q=spa...FQpKJgodL3AMAw#tbm=isch&q=nudibranch+sea+slug

 

[pledosophy]

I am not to certain on species names yet. I was hoping to find out what species had known food requirements and then go from there. Oddly enough my QT tank is filled with flatworms. I am sure I could keep a pair of the blue velvets in there for quite some time, but I was actually looking to more of the colorful ones like the purples or turquiose.

I just haven't found anyone who has kept them or is away of their food needs.

 

[snorvich]

Since nudibranchs are single food source animals, in order to keep them you would constantly need to replace the food source. Also, nudibranchs are bisexual so two of the same species will reproduce which would further (or more quickly) diminish the food source. Beautiful animals (I spent a lot of time photographing them) but in-feasible in our aquaria without expending a bunch of money on the food source.

 

[pledosophy]

Since nudibranchs are single food source animals, in order to keep them you would constantly need to replace the food source. Also, nudibranchs are bisexual so two of the same species will reproduce which would further (or more quickly) diminish the food source. Beautiful animals (I spent a lot of time photographing them) but in-feasible in our aquaria without expending a bunch of money on the food source.

I'm O.K. with growing or producing food sources. I mean back in 02 when I was breeding seahorses that was impossible too. I am just hoping this time someone else has done some more of the work...

I'm even cool with a 30g tank and a 100g sump with 60g fuge. I have the fridge wired for automated frozen feedings with a perastalic pump even if needed (think NOS feeding)I just wanna know if anyone had done it.

 

[snorvich]

I'm O.K. with growing or producing food sources. I mean back in 02 when I was breeding seahorses that was impossible too. I am just hoping this time someone else has done some more of the work...

I'm even cool with a 30g tank and a 100g sump with 60g fuge. I have the fridge wired for automated frozen feedings with a perastalic pump even if needed (think NOS feeding)I just wanna know if anyone had done it.

They eat corals.

 

[pledosophy]

They eat corals.

Not all of them. I think that the coral obligate feeder this is more a myth, there seem to be species that eat other things as well.

 

[pledosophy]

Anyone keeping them

I'm bumping hoping to get lucky

 

[Buzz1329]

I've tried lettuce, bergia, and Dolabella auricularia, and none of them survived more than a month. Good luck with your quest, but I know I cannot keep them alive and will not buy/kill another.

 

[HefeWeizen]

Since nudibranchs are single food source animals, in order to keep them you would constantly need to replace the food source. Also, nudibranchs are bisexual so two of the same species will reproduce which would further (or more quickly) diminish the food source. Beautiful animals (I spent a lot of time photographing them) but in-feasible in our aquaria without expending a bunch of money on the food source.

BISEXUAL?

Nudi orgy! LMAO!

Hermaphrodites

 

[snorvich]

BISEXUAL?

Yes. They have both male and female "capability" They find each other on the reef by sensing a chemical slime trail.

Nudi orgy! LMAO!

Serial mating not concurrent. However, it not clear why that is funny. Many wild animals have serial mating.

Hermaphrodites