Tritoniopsis elegans requirements?

[Ruise]

Hello! Today I went to my local aquarium store, and took home a free nudibranch about an inch or more long that had hitchhiked in one of their tanks. I named it Saint Kyoko. I searched online and discovered it is most likely a Tritoniopsis. I found out they eat soft coral, which is usually makes them pests, but I don't keep coral, just macroalgae, snails, and now this little fellow. Since I only took the one, and nudibranches supposedly cannot reproduce on their own, I don't forsee it overrunning my tank.

Now my questions are: Will they eat any soft coral? How about zoas? How much do they need to eat? If I can feed it with a $10 frag or two of such-and-such a month, it's no problem, but if it needs the fancy $60 stuff and a lot of it, it is unfortunately RIP to Saint Kyoko.

Also I'll probably need to feed the coral every now and then too?

 

[Bigpapii]

From what I've been reading they're usually found with Lobophyton, or devils hand leather coral which is pretty cheap at local fish stores


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[pagojoe]

Lobophyton is pretty common, and they get to be fairly large, but I'm not sure what size you can expect to find in the fish store. Probably the bigger the better, as it will withstand predation longer.

 

[Ruise]

Thanks guys, that's really helpful! So uh, is lobophyton easy to keep and is it the same as lobophytum/"devil's hand"? It looks like it's gonna be $40 anywhere around here, and I've never kept coral before. Also last week I got some Padina brown macroalgae on Thursday and it was deceased by Sunday for reasons unknown so not feeling super-confident. ��

 

[Ruise]

Update: I bought a couple TINY pieces of leather coral (not lobophyton) (also I bought a pretty baby bubble coral for myself) to see how they would do in my tank and if Saint Kyoko would eat them, since I've read about them eating a few other species, but it doesn't seem interested. One of the corals died, or at least I think it did. It was all shriveled, and I removed it. At one point I held the coral directly in front of Kyoko and it seemed more interested in my thumb. I've seen Kyoko slither past the still-living piece without a care. I don't know if they're just not hungry or if they really can't eat that kind...

 

[pagojoe]

Yeah, any of the food species are going to die too, you are just trying to keep them alive as long as you can so your Saint can get the maximum benefit.

 

[Ruise]

So yeah, it still hasn't touched the random baby leather coral and spends all its time in the blue hypnea, which I'm pretty sure it's developed a taste for. Blue hypnea is almost all gone now. If any scientists are interested, I am hypothesizing that my nudibranch may be a vegetarian, possibly because I named it Saint. I'm gonna try buying some lobophyton today or tomorrow though. See if it turns out to be an omnivore.

 

[Ruise]

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipPDEFUji5mhUcKJ-9io4_Zvxt08HAuaEkuWvmQP

Resolution: Went to two shops, couldn't find lobophytum, got a finger coral cutting, Saint Kyoko seems to like it, hopefully it lasts a li'l while. Also this has led me to evolve into a coral-person.