OK, all of a sudden I have these little white slugs moving around my reef tank. They are about an inch to an inch and a half long with little antenna-like things on his body. Are these little guys harmful to anything? If anyone needs a picture I can try and take one but if you know what they are from my discription any info would be great.
Little white slugs
- Thread starter Roach
- Start date
Text descriptions are rarely adequate. However there is a type of nudibranch that is a common hitchhiker on live rock that sorta matches your description.
It is called Tritoniopsis elegans and feeds on large massive soft corals like Lobophyton sp.
I took the following photos in our tanks last summer.
As they eat soft corals you'd probably want to remove them - however I've never seen them live long enough to do any significant damage anyway.
All nudi's have relatively short lifespans.
It is called Tritoniopsis elegans and feeds on large massive soft corals like Lobophyton sp.
I took the following photos in our tanks last summer.
As they eat soft corals you'd probably want to remove them - however I've never seen them live long enough to do any significant damage anyway.
All nudi's have relatively short lifespans.
I had a couple of these guys that Mick ID's hitch in on something and they totally devisated a nice Cladellia I had. I never knew what was causing the slow demise of this coral as everything else was thriving and water parameters were all in check. Then one night before going to bed I found a ~3 inch one of these guys one the rock the Cladellia used to be on. I didn't take him out that night, IDed him the next day and promptly removed this first one since Cladellia seems to be one of their favorites. Over the next several nights, I removed 5 more. I never saw them during the day. If this is what you have, I would definatley suggest removing them.
MickAv8r, hey that's the one. I guess that explaines why one of my soft corals slowly died while everything else is doing fine. Sorry about the weak discription, but hey you got it. So I guess I'll be removing all these guys now. I thought nudibranches were good for your reef tank. Anyway thanks again for the help.
Nudibranchs are very specialized feeders. Most eat only one species of coral. Hence they can be pretty difficult to keep in captivity and shouldn't normally be imported. Since the majority of the more colorful ones are specialized Coralivores they usually aren't desired in a reef aquarium unless you don't mind growing that coral purposefully to feed them. Even then they are relatively short lived in the wild living usually less than a year.
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