What is this teeeeny slug?

[iamwhatiam52]

Sorry about the lousy pic, but this thing is only 1/4 inch long.

This was on the glass which I rarely see. Others I've seen are smaller, in groups of 5 to 10 stuck to the bottom of rocks or coral.

They are white, and do look sort of like Berghia, but the plumes are branched, not clustered.

 

[pagojoe]

He's an aeolid nudibranch of some sort. They can feed on a fairly wide variety of species, including soft and hard corals. Dunno which one you have though.

Cheers,


Don

 

[iamwhatiam52]

Thanks.
Whatever they are eating, they are too small in size and numbers to cause any harm.

Glad to have them in my tank!

 

[LeslieH]

So you'd rather have nudibranchs than corals? Cool! But on the chance that you'd really rather have corals you might want to reconsider. Nudibranchs live to eat and breed - that's pretty much all they do. If you're already seeing groups of 5-10 there must be many many more, all of them laying eggs.

this was once identified for me as Phestilla minor which is known to eat Porites. The person who posted the id query said it was on his Montipora so either it's not Phestilla minor or this species eats several different cnidarians.

 

[greenbean36191]

Yep, this looks like the common Montipora eating nudibranch. Have a look at the underside of any plating montis you have and I bet you'll find the damage along with plenty of eggs.

 

[iamwhatiam52]

I'de rather have interesting creatures in my tank, as long as they do not do significant damage to the corals. I've been finding these for over two years but they have not caused any problem I can see. My Monti cap is the only coral that grows too quickly, so it's OK if they nibble on it. Maybe they have not multiplied into a plague because conditions in my tanks are not optimum for them.

I will try to make note of where I find the groups and eggs next time I'm moving things around.