nudibranch dangerous?

[Beemo]

i discovered last night i have a Tritoniopsis elegans nudibranch.
im wondering if hes a big threat to my corals or just a minor threat? he was almost an inch long
in the tank are, zoa's, mushrooms, colt coral and a bubble coral.
ive noticed my zoa colony shrinking to about 10% of what it used to be. i thoroughly inspected my zoa's and found a zoa eating snail (sundial snail) i quickly removed the snail (this was last week) at this time i was unaware of the nudibranch
i notice my shrooms are shrinking a bit and there is a slight decline, their just not as full and lush as they used to be, could this nudibranch be eating my shrooms and finishing off my zoa's too?
are LPS corals safe with him?

 

[Sygnath&Elasmos]

if you can post a pic i might be able to help. I am better with nudi's by pic than by name.

 

[Beemo]

i feel bad removing him since hes big and active enough to be called a pet :lol: i named him Noodles

 

[Beemo]

there is a chance i made a mistake in identification, it was the closest thing that looked like him though
he lookes like a walking xenia or clove polyp, infact when i first saw him i thought clove polyps just sprung up on my rock, until i saw him walk

 

[Beemo]

maybe its a sea hare?

 

[Hormigaquatica]

Judging by the camo, Im betting it is a soft coral predator (just a guess). I love random nudis; its just a shame that so many are specialized predators, and that they often focus on our more 'prized' aquarium inhabitants.
I you have a largeish tank with lush growth, there is a chance it will survive by eating whatever coral it came in on, and that the coral will recover quickly enough for them to both survive. The bigger danger is whether you have just 1 nudi... or 2... or if eggs came along too.

 

[dendro982]

I have one smaller T. elegans in 6g tank with white xenia, gsp, hairy mushroom, candycane and non-photosynthetic corals, for a few months - no visible gamage, had seen it only few times in open.

It's predator, but may be not on these corals (or they are growing faster, then are eaten).

 

[SpektralerSpeer]

To me it looks more like Phyllodesmium sp., it eats a soft coral apparently:

http://www.meerwasser-lexikon.de/de/71/1054/Phyllodesmium/sp..htm

This link is only in German however, sorry...



Paul

 

[Beemo]

thank you, yes that is him
too bad its in german lol
i watched him last night to see what he was gonna do, and he didnt do much. i didnt see him on any corals, he just walks around on the rocks. maybe hes on his way out
what i do notice is the colt coral has spread all over my tank, i wondered if it was because something was eating it causing the stalks to fall? or if this is just typical of a colt coral? i have them in my other tanks and i have no noticed this.
from one small colt coral i bought a few months ago i now have about 10 new ones fixed all by themselves on the rocks. this tank is only 12g's, its gonna be a colt forest soon lol
could the colt be bothering my mushroom corals?

 

[SpektralerSpeer]

It definitely is a Phyllodesmium sp., but unfortunately that doesn't mean much as there are many similar-looking species. There appears to be very little info on them as many of them were only recently discovered. They all appear to imitate Xenia however. Also, it is believed that they store zooxanthellae in their bodies which they take from the coral they eat. They then derive energy from the photosynthesis of the zooxanthellae in much the same way as corals.

Paul

 

[Beemo]

hes a neat lil critter. i'll leave him in there then
theres so many new colt corals maybe he will make a meal out of them, he is sorta the same color. i bet he is responsable for all those colt stalk drops (??)