Green nudibranch ID

[a.t.t.r]

The whole photosynthesis thing might be wrong actually. According to this article, the stolen chloroplasts might serve as not as a “solar panel” but simply as a stored food source. As you may be able to tell, most of this stuff is poorly understood. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2013.2493

Either way they won’t eat dead and dried algae.

 

[Uzidaisies]

Either way they won’t eat dead and dried algae.

Hmm I’m not sure about that. I feel like dried seaweed still contains the proteins and carbohydrates, lipids and such that are digested by the slugs.

 

[a.t.t.r]

Hmm I’m not sure about that. I feel like dried seaweed still contains the proteins and carbohydrates, lipids and such that are digested by the slugs.

Except the way they eat is by piercing the algae and sucking out the liquid insides.

 

[Reefingpops52]

Any ideas on what this is, and more importantly if I should whip it out?

I think it came on a piece of rock with some finger leather & xenia I purchased today. I dipped it as usual, but pretty sure this came in the rock.

Thanks everyone!

I have one as well I just plucked it off a Zoanthis rock that was decimated, about 60 large polyps...not saying it was the cause because the rock has been barren for weeks and I'm only just seeing it today. Here is a Pic hope it comes through.

 

[Tired]

Nudibranchs like these are generally the color of whatever they eat. Good way to figure out if something was the culprit in a particular situation.

Any idea what yours might have hitchhiked in on?

 

[Reefingpops52]

Not really since this was the only time and the only one I have seen but to be honest all of my zoanthids and a few other corals were struggling before I removed a small three polyp colony of Pali Grandis that seemed to be poisoning my tank after removing it most got better right away others have had a longer time of recovery some corals never recovered the one in question all the polyps closed up and began to shrink...the one in question the "sky Breaker Zoanthids" I removed, dipped to be sure and placed in a tank I use for a rehab...it just wasted away no matter what even though other corals in the rehab thrived.but I did look up a few images and info on nudis that looked exactly like this their were mixed reviews to its identification and threat level so for now it's been taken out of the jug and placed in a 10 gallon nano I had running with only a fee pieces of rock in it and some macro algae on the three small rocks if the macro algae starts to disappear I may lean towards the assumption that it's an algae eater if I'm right in my assumption most nudis are pretty much diet specific but I could be wrong in assuming that info is correct as well but at least in this scenario he can't harm anything else until I know.

 

[Tired]

Corals often have a 'lag' in their response to stresses. It can take up to a couple weeks to start reacting to a problem, and it can take up to a couple weeks for them to start reacting to that problem being fixed. Sometimes a coral is far gone enough that it's dead or dying before the recovery really hits it.

Most nudibranchs are very to extremely diet-specific, yes. Many of them will only eat one specific genus of life. Yours does look like an algae-eater, but the question still remains as to whether it'll eat the particular algae that's in with it. Hopefully so, it'd be a shame for the poor thing to starve.

Curious where you saw anything that shows nudibranchs like this one as being not-reef-safe. I'm seeing a greenish, wrinkly sort of creature.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Not really since this was the only time and the only one I have seen but to be honest all of my zoanthids and a few other corals were struggling before I removed a small three polyp colony of Pali Grandis that seemed to be poisoning my tank after removing it most got better right away others have had a longer time of recovery some corals never recovered the one in question all the polyps closed up and began to shrink...the one in question the "sky Breaker Zoanthids" I removed, dipped to be sure and placed in a tank I use for a rehab...it just wasted away no matter what even though other corals in the rehab thrived.but I did look up a few images and info on nudis that looked exactly like this their were mixed reviews to its identification and threat level so for now it's been taken out of the jug and placed in a 10 gallon nano I had running with only a fee pieces of rock in it and some macro algae on the three small rocks if the macro algae starts to disappear I may lean towards the assumption that it's an algae eater if I'm right in my assumption most nudis are pretty much diet specific but I could be wrong in assuming that info is correct as well but at least in this scenario he can't harm anything else until I know.

The pictures are pretty blurry, but I'd guess that's an Elysia sp. sacoglossan slug (herbivore) - possibly Elysia obtusa or Elysia flava - rather than a true nudibranch.

Some lettuce slugs (typically from the genus Elysia) will eat nuisance algae species, but their wild diet varies pretty drastically from one species to another, and some species have some pretty specific wild diets (I don’t know if these are required diets or preferred diets, but Reef Cleaners reports that they'll eat just about any green, fleshy algae). That said, Elysia slugs generally feed on siphonalean algae such as Caulerpa, Codium, Acetabularia, Halimeda, Udotea, Byropsis, and Valonia spp. So, in theory, these guys should eat nuisance algae that pops up in your tank.

 

[Reefingpops52]

The pictures are pretty blurry, but I'd guess that's an Elysia sp. sacoglossan slug (herbivore) - possibly Elysia obtusa or Elysia flava - rather than a true nudibranch.

Thank you for all your help, he's been on a patch of already for days now and is clearly devouring it it's rather large and moves around but never leaves it except to hide when the lights ramp up.