ID needed - Nudibranch?

[ChemE]

Reef Invertebrates and Melev's ID pages were no help so I'm hoping someone out there knows what the heck this thing is. This guy is around 3" long and came out of my rock curing tub which is currently curing out 50# of Timora Sea rock from Premium Aquatics. Not sure if the origin of the rock will help anyone ID this guy but just in case.

Slightly overexposed with flash but colors are accurate

Slightly redish in hue but sharper detail than previous shot

Thanks,
ChemE

 

[pagojoe]

It's a chiton, although an unusual one, since most of the plates are hidden. It's Cryptoplax larvaeformis or one of the closely-related species that gets lumped under that name.

Cheers,



Don

 

[ChemE]

Wow, that was fast! Is this guy safe for a mixed reef? He's not dead yet but he won't make it through the night in the mostly empty IO bucket. If he is reef safe he'll go back into the rock curing tub.

Thanks!

 

[greenbean36191]

Yes, it's safe. Like almost all chitons these guys are grazers.

 

[bph0013]

nice find, it's cool looking!!

 

[ChemE]

Thanks! He did survive his brief quarantine while I was getting my ID and is happily crawling all over my Timora Sea rock.

 

[snorvich]

What do they graze on? Where does one get them?

 

[pagojoe]

Algae and probably the microorganisms they scrape off rocks or dead coral. You can collect your own in Tonga, Vanuatu, the Philippines, and a lot of places in between, but it's not one of the species that shows up regularly on aquarium suppliers' lists. They grow fairly large, up to five or six inches.

Cheers,


Don