Lettuce nudibranch (not an actual nudi, they just call it that) are non toxic if I remember correctly. They primarily eat hair algae, and even incorporate some of the chloroplasts into their tissue. I’ve been told that they need lots of hair algae or they can starve. I want one, but I can’t get hair algae to grow in the tank that I want one. They’re like 6 bucks on reef cleaners.
I just realized how insane it is that I’m trying to encourage gha, just so I can add to my CUC…
I received 4 Elysia from Reefcleaners. I'm pretty certain that one, if not all four, are actually E. clarki, not E. crispata.
According to this article, E. clarki is supposed to consume Penicillus capitatus, P. lamourouxii, Halimeda incrassata and H. monile, as well as Bryopsis plumosa. I have plenty of hair algae (I believe a Derbesia sp.) in this aquarium, but I haven't observed them eating it in significant amounts.
I can confirm that in my aquarium, I've seen the slugs on the P. capitatus that I also got from Reefcleaners. The P. capitatus didn't do well after being transferred to my aquarium, but most of them put out a new growth stem after being planted. I ordered 5, and 4 survived being planted into the aquarium. I would order a lot more (10+) for the 4 slugs were I to do it again from scratch, so that the slugs had plenty of this as a food source. I also received a bunch of either Halimeda monile or Halimeda incrassata from Reefcleaners, but I haven't observed them feeding on this as much. It's also not as well established in the aquarium. I could have ordered more of this as well to start with.
I'm probably the only reefer (well, there may be one or two others) that would like to have bryopsis as a food source for the slugs. This is my first time keeping them, 3 of the 4 slugs (the ones that I'm not certain were E. clarki) only lived 6-7 weeks. The 4th is still alive, it's been about 9 weeks. I'm not sure the age when I received them, other than that all 4 were adults. I've seen several bunches of eggs, and at least a handful of juvenile slugs, but I think the larvae prefer bryopsis as a food source, one that I don't unfortunately have in my aquarium. I didn't take any extra steps to collect the eggs or rear the hatchlings, it all happened in tank, and I believe they juveniles made it to at least 3 weeks old based on size and observed development. I had been hoping to get some bryopsis from a local reefer that was battling a bryopsis problem, but they hit it with fluc before I was able to get some from them. I've also had a cyano problem in the tank that flares up from time to time. It's also possible the larvae were consumed by predatory flatworms in the tank, I need to follow-up on this and potentially eradicate the flatworms.
