sea slug health

[bumblebee1976]

I have just become the lucky owner of a lettuce nudibranch (sea slug) - he is so cute! But...I am worried that he is not happy in my relatively new marine biorb. Please, no advice about biorbs being a nightmare - mine's running perfectly. He has gone still and is half his original size - I appreciate that they can't possibly feed all the time but I read that they live on bryopsis and chaetomorpha algae, neither of which I have. He seems to eat the algae on the acrylic and the rocks but I am worried that he has gone quiet. The lfs advised that there isn't anything I can put in to supplement feeding and the algae he eats is a nuisance one that will take over the tank. What do you think are my chances of keeping him for long and why is he so small/still? Many thanks one and all.

 

[VacavilleFC3S]

without massive amounts of of hair algae or the like, he most likely isn't going to survive

 

[philbo32]

I would try feeding him some algae pellets (the ones for plecs), my sea hare loves them. It's no guarantee that it'll eat them but it's worth a try.

 

[greenbean36191]

[welcome]
Lettuce slugs are specialized feeders. There are at least 3 species, all of which have different diets and all of which require live algae to survive. They feed on algae like Halimeda, Caulerpa, hair algae, and shaving brush algae. There is no way to feed them with artificial foods because their method of feeding is much different than most slugs and snails. Rather than rasping up their food, these guys pierce the algal cells and suck the juice out, so they require intact cells.

 

[Elysia]

As mentioned, Elysia spp. need live algae on which to feed. Which species you have can determine which algae the slug will feed on, but there are at least three different Elysia spp. popular in the trade. I have no idea if one is more common across the pond or not.