question on lettuce sea slug behavior

[pglenn]

I have 4 lettuce sea slugs in my 29g reef (yeah, probably 2 if not 3 too many). I have had them in there for a couple months. Only one of them explores the entire tank, another explores sometimes, but the other two and the "sometimes" one mostly hang out on the glasss at the top of the tank, in the direct flow of my power filter and obviously near the light, and the two dont move hardly at all. I have a couple of times taken them all and placed them within the rock but they end up back at the tank top.

question is, is this considered "normal"? I figured they are partially photosynthetic but they are getting little if any solid food, other than what they may be filtering/catching in the water flow. should I be concerned with their health? they so far dont seem to be adversely affected, at least on the outside

Patrick

29g, prizm skimmer, marineland bio-wheel 200, 2x65w compact flourescant, about 30lbs live rock, 1 goby and 1 blenny, several hermits and astrae

 

[fijireef]

Put bunches of good 'ole algae sheets all over the rocks for them..see if they can be coaxed to stay down there. I'm not sure if thats normal for them to be up there.. but do try the sheets. Its my understanding these guys can be a bit tough to maintain. Good luck & report back what happened. I was thinking of trying 1 or 2 of these in my 55.

 

[pglenn]

well I do have plenty of algae - :-( - but maybe I will try that. I hear ya about 1 or 2 in your 55, I won a bid on EBAY from sealifeflorida.com for 2 of these (all I wanted) and they ended up sending me 4... not what I wanted but I still took 'em (didnt really have a choice)

Patrick

 

[Letmegrow]

They wont eat algae sheets.

They are like vampires and suck out juice from the algae. They do not mow it down like a cow would.

They are at the top, starving for food. They do not filter feed either. They eat very specific algae too, they are not suited for reef tanks what so ever, they do not like the flow.

Contact the website and ask them to change their description and use of these animals. If you wont do it, they wont either.

 

[pglenn]

not 100% that I agree... while the lettuce sea slug do ingest the juice from the algae, and thereby extract the chloroplasts, they use that as the basis for the photosynthesis part of their behavior. and I find it odd that the 1 wanders around the entire aquarium while the other 3, even when I move them, return to the one location in the tank that has the combination of the most light and the highest water flow. you say they dont like the flow, yet they continually go to the point of highest flow...

I wont say that they arent starving, even if they dont show it (yet), I am just extremely curious why the 3 always return to the exact same spot in the tank.

 

[Letmegrow]

Why do dogs stick their head out the window ?