Nudibranch experience?

[vasilithegreek]

anybody have any experience taking care of these guys. Im looking more of the ornamental looking ones rather than the lettuce nudi's even though they are still nice.

Any info or advice from some of you would be great.
Thanks

 

[dendro982]

I had the white-black striped with orange-red band around, Chromodoris magnifica and C. quadricolor. Obligate feeders, acceptable food is not readily available and can't be ordered or imported on request. All available substitutes were not accepted. They died.

You van find the name of nudibranch of interest by describing colors in web search, then add "food" or "feeding" to the search, this will show you what they will need, if information is known.

Most complete is List of Worldwide Food Habits of Nudibranchs .

HTH

 

[greenbean36191]

Dendro's experience is the case for pretty much all of the dorid nudibranchs, which are the pretty ones.

I've had success with Diaulula greeleyi, but only because they're a local species and I could easily collect their food sponge on a regular basis.

I've also kept Tritoniopsis elegans which isn't a dorid, but is still pretty. It's an obligate feeder on leather corals, which means it's not reef safe, but it can be kept alive in captivity as long as you're willing to supply it with corals occasionally.

 

[snorvich]

That is good advice. Most of the "nice looking" nudibranchs only eat one thing, and generally it is something that you cannot get or don't want to lose. Generally, not a good animal to try and keep. But, if you are a diver like the poster above, they are great subjects for interesting photographs.

These mating nembrotha nudibranchs eat tunicates.

 

[Flavum]

I hate that you cant keep these guys. maybe one day though, there stunning!

how hard is it to cultivate tunicates and do nudis specificly eat only one species of them or just in general?

 

[greenbean36191]

There are lots of problems associated with growing food for nudis. Most species are very specialized and only eat a few species of prey- some only feed on a single species. For most nudibranchs we don't know what species they feed on. That knowledge doesn't help much though if you can't locate the right species, which is next to impossible to do unless you're a tunicate or sponge specialist since both groups are extremely hard to identify and are represented by very low diversity in the hobby. The number of those that actually do well in captivity is far fewer still, and virtually none of them grow fast enough to support a nudi unless you want to set up a dedicated sponge or tunicate farm.