Nudibranchs, The Naked-Gill Sea Slugs  4/26/07 Dear Mr. Fenner: <Gary> On your website: http://wetwebfotos.com/Home?actionRequest=articleView&articleID=318, you cite the following article: Glodek, Garrett. 1996. A little bit about Nudibranchs. FAMA 11/96. <Yes... finally home... re-sorted my bound, unbound, loose issues... and is in the November 1996 issue... page 176...> I could not find the article in the cited issue and have looked through all the issues of FAMA for a year on either side of 11/96 and have been unable to find the article. I had no problem finding :Glodek, Garrett. 1995. The biology of Nudibranchs. FAMA 5/95. Can you send me any further information about the article so that I may find it in our library. Thank you very much, Gary McDonald-- <Will gladly do... but in about a week... have just hauled out to HI today... my copies are on the mainland. BobF> Gary McDonald Long Marine Lab, 100 Shaffer Rd., Santa Cruz, CA 95060 <Try page 176... his column: "All In the Interest of Science". Cheers, Bob Fenner>

Nudibranchs    2/12/07 Dear Sir <Just Bob, please> First at all, I apologize for bothering you. My name is Marta Pola. I am a postdoctoral student at the California Academy of sciences, in San Francisco. <Ahh! Pleased to meet you Marta> I was looking at the Seaslug forum and I found a messages from you about Bornella calcarata from Bahamas. I know that it was from some years ago but I was wondering if you are still diving and still interested in nudibranchs. I am starting to work in a worldwide revision of the genera Bornella, Janolus and Armina. So, I was wondering if you could help me collecting some specimens for me, could you? <Mmm, if I were there more frequently, I'd be happy to assist you... Am in San Diego half the year, off traveling, though not that often to the TWA, the rest of the time> Please, let me know if there is any change of it. Thank you very much in advance and again apologize for bothering you. Looking for hearing you, Best regards Marta Pola Pez California Academy of Sciences <Do ask David Behrens there (and say hello for me) how you might proceed... there are some other agencies, individuals who may be able to assist you here. Bob Fenner>

Weird White Round Thing and Scary Worm, Nudi eggs and Bristleworm Ok wet web crew, maybe you can help. I have just introduced a lettuce Nudibranch into my reef tank when I put it in after quarantine (3 weeks) it sunk to a certain spot and stayed in that spot for a whole day, it didn't scoot around as it had in quarantine. This morning it was happily munching on some algae on the other side of the tank, that was a relief, but where it was there is a perfectly round white slimy raised 2" across patch that looks like rings with a hole in the middle on some live rock in the exact spot he sat for the whole day.  Unfortunately my attempts to photograph were in vain, 80lbs live rock doesn't leave much room to get a pic. Now I was wondering if it was just some kind of reactionary mucus rings left by the Nudibranch, or some kind of fluke or roundworm or parasite that the slug just happened to land on and got trapped stuck whatever. <Mmm, likely a reproductive event... eggs> I know that sounds unlikely but the more I learn about marine life I don't rule out much these days.  And totally unrelated this morning I pulled a 4" worm that was covered in what resembled plated spikes, it was a dark brown green, I saw it and yanked out the dead plate I have for decoration he was crawling on. Then I dropped it into hot fresh water, I know its not good to kill stuff if you can't identify but I didn't want to take a chance it was predatory to fish or inverts, so I caught him while I could. Thanks again for your vast wealth of wisdom you share with us all Mike Yates <This last is very likely a species of Errantiate polychaete... Bob Fenner> 

Phyllodesmium ate xenia Hello. I tried to send an e-mail yesterday by going to your website, but perhaps it did not make it through. I have a Pom Pom xenia, which was really a beautiful creature when purchased a week ago. Three days ago I noticed it "shriveling up". I inspected it during the night and found what appeared to be part of the colony moving down the rock away from the rest! It turned out to be a Phyllodesmium that had been eating the xenia.  <Collected and shipped with it> I removed the Phyllo., which secreted a gluey, clear coating as I removed it from its hiding place. Inspecting the xenia afterwards, I could see that the damaged areas were whiter than the rest. I trimmed what I could of the damage away from the rest of the colony. Is there anything else I can do to help save this beautiful creature? <Mmm, not much that I know... perhaps a full-dose of iodine/ide will help. Will ask Anthony Calfo, an old culturist of Xeniids, for his input here> The remaining colonies are still pulsing but are also shriveled, although not discolored. Tank details follow: 30 gallon with 10 gallon sump, Excalibur protein skimmer, Coralife 192 watt power compact lights (half 10K daylight, half actinic), ammonia/nitrite=0, nitrate<10, dKH about 12-13, ph 8.0, salinity 1.024. The tank has been running about 2 months. I am slowly raising the ph using SeaChem's marine buffer 8.3 (supposedly reaches 8.3 and holds there). I am adding, daily, about 1/3 the amount of the buffer that the bottle recommends (just trying to be cautious).  Tank inhabitants are: 2 cleaner shrimps, toadstool leather, green button polyp colony, 1 Ricordea mushroom polyp, 30 lbs Tonga live rock. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks, Lan <Keep your eyes open for other Nudibranch predators... Bob Fenner>

Chromodoris magnifica feeding Hi, <Hello>  I've been wondering if I could possibly do a Chromodoris magnifica Nudibranch in my nano reef tank. I've already read on the seaslugforum.com website about their unique sponge eating diet, and after looking at some pics of the sponges that they feed on, I realized that the sponges in the pics closely resembled some of the sponges that came with my Fiji live rock (almost positive) . I know that the sponges on my rock are alive because they're growing. Do you think I could possibly try one of these nudibranchs? Also, I read on the seaslugforum.com of one person being successful with these Nudis because he got them to feed on the sponges that came with his live rock. Any help would be appreciated.  <What will you do when the sponge is gone? Most nudes are difficult to keep for any length of time because of their diet. I would rather see the sponge in my tank. James (Salty Dog)> 

New Nudi hi <Hello there> I recently made a Nudibranch the latest addition to my tank..... the guy at   my LFS said it was very sturdy and that it ate algae <Uh, no> ...well... by checking your  website I fear that its a H. bullocki or some thing very similar...I don't have  pics but ill describe the best I can....its a deep purple...a white band going  around it (more solid than in most pics of bullockis I've seen) orange "feelers"  and orange "gills " surrounding the anal gland.....ok...my problem...obviously  not knowing what type the little guy is I don't know how to care for it...I've had  it for 24 hrs and now it wont stick to anything...its secreting from its anal  gland but if it is touched then it retracts all that is orange....so I have some  faith that it is alive .....I just don't know how to keep it alive...and now I'm  afraid of  the secretions being toxic.....what should I do? <Take it back> thanks Danielle <Please, DON'T buy livestock w/o knowing what it is, its care requirements. Bob Fenner>

Predatory Nudibranch...lack of QT 2/11/04 I noticed this creature in my nano tank about a month or so ago. It's white with pinkish highlights, and moves really slow. Is it some kind of worm, Nudibranch, or maybe a sea slug. I wasn't sure if it was a coral or not.  <it is a predatory Nudibranch... often cited as Tritoniopsis or Tritonia. They commonly come in with leather corals which is their prey. And they can reproduce in aquaria. A lack of quarantine use and letting this slug in can really make you pay/suffer. Sorry to see it my friend. You may have a hard lesson in front of you. These are coral eaters> I noticed that it moves around on one rock that has a soft finger type leather coral on it. Will it eat my soft coral?  <does a bear bring a Reader's Digest into the woods? Er... I mean. Yes, they ONLY eat coral> It never leaves the rock. <please do learn and apply proper quarantine habits for all new livestock (corals, fishes, rock, algae, snails... everything wet) to prevent such pests and predators from entering your tank and causing trouble. Anthony>

Flatworm- eating Nudibranch Hi everyone. < Hi there. > I noticed my supplier currently has C. varians in stock and thought it would be striking addition to my reef. However, in trying to get some information on them before buying - which there isn't much of - I noticed that this species is widely sought after because of they're flatworm eating abilities. Fortunately, I don't have a flatworm issue - knock wood - and am curious if you know anything about the eating habits of this Nudibranch. < My understanding is that it is an obligate flatworm eater. In other words it will starve without them. > I'm beginning to suspect that flatworms are all they eat, and I have no intention of adding anything to my tank that could potentially starve. Can you shed any light on their eating habits? < I would probably not chance it. Even if it does eat something else, it may still slowly starve. I think nudibranchs in general should be avoided, and kept for very experienced reefers with mature tanks. > Thanks, Neil < Blundell > 

HOORAY FOR (flatworm eating) BLACK VELVET NUDIBRANCHS!!!! Hi Gang: <Chuck> I took possession this afternoon of a pair of black velvet nudibranchs. . . and watched with rapt fascination as they began devouring the rust red planarians which have plagued my low-flow refugium for the past year. My question is, are these nudibranchs differentiated sexually. . . how do they reproduce. . . and what are the chances of a randomly selected pair reproducing successfully in a well-stocked (with Chaetomorpha) mature refugium? Chuck <They're monoecious, cross-fertilizers... not sexually differentiated... might reproduce... Bob Fenner>

Nudibranchs in tank. I have a question about an unknown hitchhiker that has shown up in my 12gl Nano Reef tank. <Good Morning Julian, MacL here with you.> I believe that it came in on some star polyps. <Just one quick suggestion Julian and that is to quarantine your corals or at the very least dip them.>  I have other corals and a tube anemone but the star polyps seem to be the most likely to harbor small critters. <I do understand what you are saying with this.>  It is reminiscent of a small transparent brown Nudibranch with red points on it's tail end. It looks similar to the symbol shown below.  The largest of them are around 1 to 2 mm square in size and really thin (transparent.  They appear to be eating algae but I'm concerned that they might be or might start eating coral flesh. <I had a short episode with these guys in my refugium. They were a pain to get rid of but eventually I did it. First, they went out of control because my tank was out of balance so water changes helped that immensely. Then I had to cut drastically back on the lighting in my tank. While they seemed to feed on algae, they seemed to need the lighting to flourish.> They are breeding like pink tribbles. <Definitely! I also sucked them out of my tank with a turkey baster.> Currently the only mobile predators in the tank are a fire shrimp, arrow crab and a citron clown goby. They don't seem to be interested in munching on them. Part of me wonders if they will eventually level their numbers out over time and evolution of the tank...But...I just don't know.  Do you got any suggestions or words of wisdom to share? <I think that you could add some type of Dottyback or wrasse to munch on them but if you do the things I have suggested you should be able to get rid of them shortly. Took me a little over a week to see a difference. Good luck, MacL> Thanks a bunch and have a wonderful day

Buying Berghia Nudibranchs 1/4/05 Hi crew my 60 gal reef tank is over run with rock anemones. I'm tried injecting them with boiling water, and have some luck killing them. I've looked all over the web, and have hade no luck finding Berghia Nudibranchs for sale. Do you know were to buy them. I've heard you can not get them in the U. S.     Thanks for time   Skyler Allingham   <cheers, Skyler... no worries, you can indeed buy these useful nudibranchs here in the US. I have cultured them for years as others have, and seeded more than a few friends with them. Do look at the info we have here on them at wetwebmedia.com with a keyword google search from our home page... also an article of mine in January 2004 reefkeeping.com, as I recall. Be sure to run down the bibliographic references in all such articles for even more information. For a source to buy them from... do try www.inlandaquatics.com and tell Morgan that Bob and Anthony said Hi! :) He's a great chap and compliment to our industry. If Morg does not have any available, please feel welcome to write back and I will call around to friends for you for a source. Kindly, Anthony Calfo>

Berghia culture 12/16/04 Dear Anthony <cheers Ricardo> After working with ornamental shrimp for 4 years (PhD thesis...) I am trying to raise some Berghia and I have actually been able to collect their eggs and see tiny juvenile crawling in the egg cord under a microscope. <fascinating creatures and sometimes so very beautiful!> After reading your article in www.reefkeeping.com about Berghia culture I was "shocked" to notice that it takes around two months before actually seeing them with the naked eye. How can you be sure that they are still in the jar if you can't see them? <after 3-4 weeks you can spot them with the aid of a magnifying glass or jeweler's loupe> Is there any special way to conduct water changes or do they just stay in the walls and bottom of the beaker? <the latter... once they settle out they remain on the walls, floor and underside surface of the water. You simply need to plunge your siphon (airline tubing on small cups) into the middle of the water column to do your water change until they are big enough to see and work around> Any other useful advice besides the ones in your excellent article? <its most all I can think of :)> Thanking you in advance for your help. Sincerely, Ricardo Calado <best regards, Anthony>

Predatory Nudibranch? Hi Guys, I'm fairly new to reefing. <Welcome! Ryan with you> I've had my tank for about 6 months ....I recently purchased a yellow leather coral and about a week ago I noticed it has acquired a small host (about one inch). I'd like to know what it is and if it is beneficial or harmful. <Likely harmful...Everything on a reef eats something else on the reef.  Perhaps send a picture, but I'd remove it ASAP if it was me.> It appears to be some form of Nudibranch and it stays solely on the yellow leather. Its color is bright white with black specks on it. the black specs are located mainly on its sides and lower area. I'd appreciate any information you may have. Thank you for your help. Rick. <Sounds predatory.  These are fairly common with new acquisitions...Read up on quarantine procedures.  Good luck with the removal.  Ryan>