Lettuce Nudibranchs & Hermits

[toadjoe]

Will Clibanarius tricolor, the Blue-Legged Hermit, harm Lettuce Nudibranchs? Lettuce Nudibranchs don't "advertise" that they are poisonous or distasteful with coloration, so what prevents they're being snacked on by crabs?

 

[Elysia]

Lettuce sea slugs are believed to be unpalatable. I do not know if they give off any chemicals that would alert possible predators to their distastful flesh or not. In situ, these Elysia spp. would be camouflaged from their predators, but this is not always so in the aquarium, where their necessary food resources do not always exist. Animals that are prone to "picking" at things may pick at a lettuce sea slug, and the result of such picking is likely to kill the slug.

 

[geffhardy2]

I have had over 8 lettuce slugs..lol
They do not give off any harmful posins but their life spand is about 4 months. the cramb will not attack them but might try to walk on them. Only time U really have to worry about posins is if you are talking sea apple

 

[geffhardy2]

I have had over 8 lettuce slugs..lol
They do not give off any harmful posins but their life spand is about 4 months. the cramb will not attack them but might try to walk on them. Only time U really have to worry about posins is if you are talking sea apple

 

[Elysia]

Just to clarify, the seaslugs of the genus Elysia (which includes the species sold as lettuce "nudis" -- which is a misnomer, as they are not nudibranchs) have a life span that is longer than four months. Research done with some of the Florida species suggests that life spans can be longer than 24 months (as the slugs in question had lived that long and, as yet, showed no signs of reproductive behavior.) However, seaslugs do not adapt easily to life in the average aquarium, and countless numbers have died early deaths.