Can anyone identify this little guy? He looks like a nudibranch but is about the size of a grain of rice. I have seen at least 3 at once in my tank, so I assume I probably have a LOT more than that. The black arrow is the main quandry. All of them I have seen are the same size, and they have not grown in the last month or so since I saw the first one.
Offhand anyone know what the red arrow is? I assume its just a harmless worm of some kind.
Almost all nudibranchs end up being bad in an aquarium setting. The one in your picture looks particularly nasty, seen plenty that looked just like that and were zoanthid eating nudis. The one in the picture is usually as big as they get.
Ya, red arrow looks like a harmless worm/feather duster.
I have yet to see any around my zoanthids or xenias, however my zoanthids have not ever really thrived since I put them in this tank. I have been hoping my new light will help, however maybe something more sinister is at play. Any thoughts on how to get rid of the little guys?Originally Posted by Ace25
When I worked at a LFS I would have to pull out zoa frags and dip them in revive to get the nudibranchs off. Honestly, I have no idea how to rid them 100% INSIDE a tank. Normal flatworms have "flatworm exit" that will get rid of those pests, and red bugs have "interceptor", both I have used with great success in a coral tank, but I don't know of any methods that is 100% effective against nudibranchs, just lots of "band aids" like finding small wrasses that may eat them, like a 6 line wrasse, but that is no way guaranteed it will work. Only method I use for "in tank" is a pair of tweezers and grab them as I see them, but the bad part is they lay lots of eggs so that isn't a solution to the problem, just a little something that can help. IF they are zoanthid eating nudibranchs they become very hard to see because when they eat zoas, they take the color from the zoas and incorporate the color into their bodies so the nudibranchs become camouflaged in with the zoanthids.
I have read a couple places now that flatworm exit will kill nudibranchs, although apparently not their eggs.
http://www.practicalcoralfarming.com/zoonudis.html
http://www.bluezooaquatics.com/resources.asp?show=15
You were absolutely right, they were clearly eating my zoanthids. Thanks a ton for the heads up.
About 95% of my zoanthids are on a single rock, and they have some little white spots on them that I assume are the nudibranch eggs.... Is there something you recomend dipping them in to get rid of them? I dont really have to treat the whole tank, although I do plan to treat it with Flatworm Exit as soon as it comes in to kill all the adults not on that rock.
I don't know of anything that kills the eggs either. Revive seems to be a better product than Flatworm Exit for killing the adults, but from doing a quick google search, I can't find anything that seems to kill the eggs. All I see is people saying to scrape the eggs off the coral/frags when dipping it into a seperate container with saltwater/revive for around 5 minutes, no more than 10 minutes. The best option I think is to take the zoanthids out of the tank, put them in something temporary for 7 days, dip on day 1 and day 7 (eggs hatch every 6 days). If you do that there is a good chance you will get most, if not all the nudibranchs on that particular rock/frag. Still leaves a big question mark though, did the nudi's lay eggs elsewhere inside the tank? Chances are, yes, but most of the time if they don't lay the eggs within zoanthid colonies, they lay them on the glass in spiral patterns and are very easy to siphon out. It sucks there is no "1 step process" like for other pests but it is certainly a pest that can be eradicated with just a little effort, unlike some other pests like AEFW, which I have seen many people have to completely tear their tanks down to eradicate.
Don't people buy nudibranches to eat aptasia? Are those a different kind? Berghia sounds familiar...
Nudibranchs eat different stuff and are apparently pretty specific in what they eat. These guys are trouble in that they like Zooanthids, but they also seem to like algae and stuff, so if I did not have Zooanthids they wouldnt be an issue for me.
Dipping the food source I.e zoa colony in freshwater (same temp as the tank) for a few seconds will get them off. Then just watch for stragglers in the tank and suck them up with a turkey baster.
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