Lettuce Nudibranch Babies

[ivycedar]

My Lettuce Nudibranch had babies!! Around 100 or more of them showed up last week. I can't believe how fast they're growing! My tank is only about 4 months old, and this is my first reef tank, so it was quite a suprised. Any advice? Here are some pictures.

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This is one of the parents a couple weeks ago.

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This is an overview of my 54 gallon corner reef tank.

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[pagojoe]

No advice, but that's pretty awesome. Congratulations!



Don

 

[Bongo Shrimp]

Ok, I'm getting a lettuce nudi now. That's awesome!

 

[D3monic_Urges]

that is super awesome...love the Macro...cant remember the name of it atm I know it starts with N.

 

[Kataro]

wow thats cool! Did you intended to breed them?

 

[Elysia]

These are great photos -- but I would be very grateful if you could take a few more. In particular, a head shot of the "parents" and of the "kids," plus a photo of any of them when they are on the glass or have their foot visible in any way. These guys have a habit of disguising their species, but from these photos, the parapodia don't seem to match between "mother & child."

 

[tahoe61]

Nudibranch

Nudibranch

these are great photos -- but i would be very grateful if you could take a few more. In particular, a head shot of the "parents" and of the "kids," plus a photo of any of them when they are on the glass or have their foot visible in any way. These guys have a habit of disguising their species, but from these photos, the parapodia don't seem to match between "mother & child."

+1

 

[pagojoe]

-1 LOL

Elysia could be right, as there are a couple of the clear bluish-looking species with sinuous parapodia, but the chances that they'd both end up in this tank, adults of one species and juveniles of the other, seems pretty remote. The juvies tend to be more slender in outline and never really look as much like...um, lettuce...until they are larger. I would have guessed both the adults and juveniles to be Elysia crispata, even if they were submitted from different tanks, I think. Leslie and Greenbean may be able to give some more precise pointers, and I always defer to their judgment on sluggy things.

Cheers,



Don

 

[LeslieH]

Don's right. The parapodia start as simple flaps then develop & become more folded & sinuous as the animal becomes larger. Babies have much less color as they haven't filled up with chloroplasts yet. I do think they're all Elysia crispata.

 

[Elysia]

Sorry, I wasn't being clear. I wasn't suggesting that the "kids" just showed up in the tank, rather, I was (am) wondering if perhaps the OP has three or more adult Elysia spp. in the tank. My thoughts were simply that the adult shown doesn't seem to match the juveniles; however, I have seen both E. crispata and E. clarki sold together from the same tank at LFS before -- and wondered if there might be two adults in this tank that appeared to be E. clarki.

 

[ivycedar]

Hello and thanks to all for the great information. The only sluggy critters in my tank are the two Lettuce Nudibranch's I purchased about 7 weeks ago. I did not intend to breed them, from what I have read, one or both were were most likely already packin' when I got them as adults. I put some Chaeto Chaetomorpha Macro Algae in the tank and after a week, all these little white dots were on and around it. Found a magnifying glass and realized they were moving! This was 12 days ago. I can't believe how fast they're growing. Here's some more pictures:

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Here are the babies at 12 days old. Started to see some dots and green coloration yesterday. The biggest ones are 5/8 of an inch long.

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Here are a couple pictures of both adults. They are around 1 1/4" to 1 1/2" long.

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Please excuse my dirty glass, I want to have plenty of food for the babies. The two Nudibranchs look a little different in color to me, but when I purchased them, I was told they were both Lettuce Nudibranchs. Thank you again form any information, and thank you for looking.

 

[LeslieH]

Oh sorry, Elysia, I get it now! If the babies survive when they get larger the parapodia should fuse. During field work in the Caribbean I've seen very small individuals with gaps, intermediate size animals with very narrow gaps, and large ones with fused parapodia.

For those that don't know, in E. crispata the bottom is solid pale white/light green while in E. clarki the green reticulations on the sides continue onto the bottom. Those two species are from the Caribbean. The Pacific species E. diomedea is similar but has black-and-white striped rhinophores which are very distinctive. All three are called lettuce nudibranchs but they should really be called lettuce sea slugs as they are not nudibranchs. Ivy's pictures of the adults clearly show that they're both E. crispata.

 

[Kataro]

what kind of powerhead do you use for water movement? I'm thinking of getting a pair but fear they might die by being sucked into my vortech

 

[MaJaCa]

I'm getting some.. those are SO cool!

 

[Elysia]

Thanks for the additional photos, ivycedar, and the additional information, Leslie. Another reason why I love these slugs is that these two species can be identified by their foot! I just think that is cool.

To everyone else -- please be aware that these slugs are not necessarily easy to keep alive, especially was it comes to providing them w/ the specific algae on which they feed. There is likely more up to date research out there now (I really need to find another college library job), but from my literature search, it seems that more is known about E. clarki.

For E. crispata, juvenile food is unknown but adults are known to feed upon Halimeda incrassata and Penicillus capitatus.

 

[ivycedar]

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Thank you again all, for the great information. Here is a picture of one of the parents and a baby I took yesterday. They are growing sooo fast! I have read conflicting information about this slug. Some say they are extremely difficult to care for, and some say they are somewhat easy. From what I have read, the 'hair' algae is the key. When the hair algae is gone, they die, bottom line. My LFS even agrees on this. I have stopped cleaning the glass and bumped my Metal Halide up an hour to make sure the babies have enough to eat until they are ready to go to the LFS. Everything seems to be going great. I have a half dozen or so other 'plants' in the tank, but the Lettuce Nudibranch's seem to only eat the hair / film / nuisance algae. My glass is this beautiful lacy pattern. Thanks again for the information and have a wonderful day!!

 

[tbraun]

Re: Lettuce Nudibranch Babies

Congrats! I had a nudibranch about two monthes ago. He suddenly vanished shortly after I fixed my algae problem. Last week I found these guys in my tank. There is about 8 of them in total and they're growing extremely fast. I haven't changed anything in the tank to make life "easier" for them and they seem to be surviving. I do have a vortech mp40w too so the currents are pretty strong. I also have been scrubbing the glass and they seem to still find food to eat.

Sorry about the poor photo, it was taken with my iPhone.

Tim


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[wdt2000]

Are they eating the algae growing on the glass?

 

[lostintheocean]

I have a one, he was all over my display for a couple months then he dissappeared for about 3 weeks or so. I figured he was a gonner. Well some how he managed to work his way down the plumbing into the refugium area of my sump and had been happy there for the past couple months. There is a lot of algea on the glass and such in the fuge, I wonder if he sought this out or it it was change he made it down my durso (it has multiple egg crage covering to prevent snails from entering) and happened to hang a left into the refugium instead of a right to the skimmer chamber. I have been thinking about getting another and I think I am now sold. great picks

 

[Elysia]

Actually, they don't "eat" any algae, they only pierce the algal cell wall and suck out the contents, including the chloroplasts, so they don't really "remove" algae from a tank. From the scientific study that I know of that was done w/ E. crispata, the researchers did not find any chloroplasts from Bryopsis (a common hair alage) in the animals.

I really do not recommend purchasing these animals unless you have taken the appropriate measures to care for them properly. This entails purchasing their known food species (living Halimeda and Penicillus spp.), no tankmates that "pick" or "nibble" at live rock or algae, no "sticky" or powerful stinging corals/anemones, and covering all intakes to overflows, powerheads, and filters -- these are delicate animals that can be mortally wounded by even small body tears.