Nudibranch problems

[KirbyBTF]

So I posted yesterday about a Nudibranch I picked up at my LFS on an impulse. Needless to say I realized their eating habits don't work well in home aquaria. I do plan to return him tomorrow to the LFS and get some credit back. However, when I first put him in the tank everything was fine. But within the hour ALL my Zoas and my feather duster had closed up. My snails seemed like they were barely hanging on the glass, and one snail has completely receded into his shell. The one fish, a clown goby, seems to be doing perfectly fine. The Nudibranch seems to be doing perfectly fine as well. Cruising around and looking happy and healthy as can be. I read when they die they can release a toxin into the water, I'm wondering if some species release that toxin anyways. I'm really hoping my tank isn't toast, I removed the Nudibranch and put him in his own temporary home and did a 40% water change. Waiting to see what happens now. Just hoping to get some insight on what may have happened here. My water parameters are fine as well. For reference my tank is an Aqueon Evolve 4 Pico tank, stock pump and live rock in the back portion of the tank. Running Purigen as the filter pad. And a 30" Coralife 10000k 65w & Actinic light.

 

[pagojoe]

Most of the Chromodoris species are toxic to one degree or another, but these aren't the ones that are known for nuking tanks. That said, most people don't try to keep them in Picos. If you had him in a bag of water from the fish store, and he was jostled and stressed, you might have ended up with an unusual level of toxicity in the bag you transported him in. If you dumped that in your tank, it might have caused your other animals to react. These slugs aren't really practical in reef tanks, no matter how big, unless you have enough live rock with the particular food sponge growing on it. That would usually only happen in a very large tank with a hitchhiker that came in on that sponge. Even then, the sponge has to thrive with (potentially) a colony of nudibranchs gnawing away at it. It would make for a tricky balancing act. Your animals will probably recover, but if you can get your money back on the nudi, I think that would be a good idea.

Cheers,



Don