Lettuce Nudibranch - has anyone had experience keeping these invertebrates?

[ReefObsessor805]

I am really interested in adding these invertebrates to my established marine aquarium. I have a lot of live rock for them to graze upon and a lot of Chaetomorpha in my refugium. If algae is one of their main interests I would really like to keep these awesome invertebrates.

- Has anyone had experience in keeping these invertebrates?

- Any suggestions or advice about them?

Thanks a lot!

 

[gunslingerone9]

hey you think lettuce slugs are cool check out www.seaslugforum.net/ they have some crazy looking nudibranchs and with concerns to your tanks they would be fine, if for whatever reason you run out of algae you can also use the same stuff to feed tangs and other algae fish

 

[smy168]

their kinda tough, I've had 2 in the last 10 years and they eventually run out of food or get pulled into my powerheads.

 

[iamwhatiam52]

I have lots of algae in my tank, but the lettuce nudies always waste away.
Maybe there are several varieties since a few people report success, but I've had no luck.

 

[Ryanqk]

I love these types of lil nudi's but i have a problem with them getting stuck in intakes for my filters and die off as a result, had one die after it fell into an anenome too...

 

[ReefObsessor805]

Pic of my Lettuce Nudi...

 

[TellyFish]

Loved mine. Got sucked into the sump I suspect, I watched him squeeze throught the 1/8" hole in my overflow and ended up a shreded snack item unfortunatly.

 

[LeslieH]

If you check the sea slug forum you'll see there's a lot of discussion on what they eat. NOne of them are reported to eat Chaetomorpha & they're very selective about what they do eat. Juveniles & adults eat different algae, and they dn't live very long in nature. There are 3 species:
Elysia clarki (the one in ReefObsessor's pic) - from Florida Keys, this eats Penicillus capitatus, P. lamourouxii, Halimeda incrassata, H. monile, and Bryposis plumosa ( http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet.cfm?base=elysclar)
Elysia diomedea - Pacific coast Central America & Mexico, eats brown algae Padina & red algae Spyridia; there are several posts about this in aquariums on the SSF (http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet.cfm?base=elysdiom)
Elysia crispata - Caribbean, lots of post about feeding on the SSF (http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet.cfm?base=elyscris)