I want your bryopsis!

((FORDTECH)) · Apr 10, 2023

Eric R. said:
Is it possible for you to pull out a small piece and get a close up picture under bright light, so I can see more detail? That would help ID the species, like B. plumosa or B. pennata (this site says B. pennata is preferred).

So have you gotten anywhere with this because of the next hour or two I will be removing it all in flushing down the toilet if you want it you better figure it out but I’m sure I have a good gallon size bag of it

Eric R. · Apr 10, 2023

((FORDTECH)) said:
So have you gotten anywhere with this because of the next hour or two I will be removing it all in flushing down the toilet if you want it you better figure it out but I’m sure I have a good gallon size bag of it

Seems like it's B. pennata.

((FORDTECH)) · Apr 10, 2023

Eric R. said:
Seems like it's B. pennata.

So what does that mean? Lettuce nudi do not eat it ?

Eric R. · Apr 10, 2023

((FORDTECH)) said:
So what does that mean? Lettuce nudi do not eat it ?

Adults do, there's some differing opinions on whether juveniles will.

((FORDTECH)) · Apr 10, 2023

Eric R. said:
Adults do, there's some differing opinions on whether juveniles will.

Hmm so if I want to eradicate it, I could possibly do it with adult lettuce, Nudi?

CoreyA · May 2, 2023

((FORDTECH)) said:
Hmm so if I want to eradicate it, I could possibly do it with adult lettuce, Nudi?

I didn't notice activity in the thread - my bad! I seem to not know how forums work

.

It does look like either B. pennata or plumosa - I think you could likely get rid of it with E. clarkii or maybe E. crispata depending on how much you have - what you describe would probably take a small number of slugs a long time to eat. I have what I think is third Bryopsis type, and have been able to raise Clarkii using it. If you do order some, I occasionally get sent E. diomedea from some vendors that don't know the difference, and they don't seem to eat it.

If you happen to get any more growing and would consider sending I'm interested!

CoreyA · May 2, 2023

Eric R. said:
Welcome @CoreyA! Looks like you're new. So you're breeding Elysia as well? Do you keep reefs too or is this specifically just breeding Elysia? I'm still looking for bryopsis myself, but I'm relatively close to you, I'm in the Burlington VT area.

Thanks for the welcome!

I'm a molecular biologist specifically breeding (or trying to breed, anyway...) Elysia and some other critters for research - I had just been ordering them as needed but decided it would be nice to be able to have a colony, especially because most vendors seem to conflate Clarkii, crispata, and diomedea and it was annoying to reliably source a particular species.

The Bryopsis hunt has been a tricky for me as well. I was able to get some kind of Bryopsis algae from the New England Aquarium and also got some from the ebay vendor listed in this thread - I think both are the same type as in the slug blog, but I've never felt certain that is B. plumosa he describes - the filaments are mostly straight and not so fern-like as most images I see of B. plumosa (including the images by @Fordtech88, which seem like the standard morphology). Whatever it is, I've been able to raise clarkii eggs to adulthood on it, though I also have some Derbesia and other contaminant algae growing in the tank, so who knows. I've been trying to scale up a clean monoculture, I'll let you know how that goes.