What is this on my glass???

[Wonf]

Just noticed this guy inside my tank today. My clown fish swam up to it and bumped it as I was trying to take a picture. It shriveled up a little (one of the pics) and the clown fish clearly didn't enjoy the encounter because he jerked and swam away.

What is this????

 

[Chris Adams]

nudi got any zoas

PS I would be pulling it!

 

[DMCM]

Nudibranch?

 

[Wonf]

Been watching it for a while. Almost looks like a snail (with no shell) with yellow spikes on its body... kinda cool but kinda gross...

 

[Wonf]

I do have a zoa and it does look like a nudibranch (not that I know what that is, but based on google images...).
Will this thing eat my zoa???

 

[Wonf]

Do I just pull it with tweezers?? sorry, kinda freaking out. newbie here....

 

[twilliard]

Nudis is what you have yourself.
I think they are beautiful creatures depending on species

 

[clowner]

Kill it or it will kill your zoas...i agree with nudi

 

[DMCM]

dip your zoas and look for eggs

 

[Chris Adams]

ha ha ya nudi are cool looking. Any zoas have similar color to the nudi? If yes have you noticed any disappearing yet? Generally will take on some of the color

 

[Wonf]

I dipped my zoa (the bayer pesticide) when I first got it (a couple weeks ago). Does this mean it had eggs and survived the initial dip???

 

[Wonf]

Hmm.. My zoa is usually purple, pink or green... this nudi is green so makes sense... Does 1 nudi means there are always a lot more???

 

[Chris Adams]

Well that looks to be pretty good size. The zoa nudi I have seen generally 3/4 to inch or so for adult. If you have magnify glass I would pull your zoa colony and give it an inspection. Look at images for nudi eggs usually laid in circular cluster on the zoas.

 

[ahiggins]

I dipped my zoa (the bayer pesticide) when I first got it (a couple weeks ago). Does this mean it had eggs and survived the initial dip???

Yes.
Pull it ASAP and dip your zoas and palys ASAP. I'm not sure the frequency but you'll need multiple dips.

 

[Aiden Parker]

Yes agreed it is a nudi. Dip. Dip. Dip.

 

[Wonf]

Wow... now that I knew what I was looking for, I caught 3 nudi's randomly around the tank (2 on the glass, one on a rock). I started inspecting the zoa colony and found 2 on the zoas. Pulled all of these out (learned the hard way that squeezing too hard with the tweezers will break them in half and they will still be alive!!!). Fairly certain there are no more "adult" nudi's... but now for the eggs. So I learned to look for white circular clusters of eggs... so far don't see any, but it's hard when the zoa is "happy" and open. Plan on checking later when they are "sleeping".
Thanks guys for the quick responses and confirmation today. Priceless forum. ^^V

 

[Wonf]

FYI, the nudi in my original post/pic was about 1/4 inch long. Not that big, hopefully not old enough to lay eggs, but perhaps these guys just hatched from eggs that survived the initial dip when the zoas got here...

 

[DMCM]

I would still dip all the zoas those nudibranch are hard to see sometimes and check for eggs on the rocks and frag plugs too.

 

[ahiggins]

Glad you're getting ahead of it! Good luck

 

[nervousmonkey]

Glad you're getting ahead of it! Good luck

Agreed here. Not all nudibranches will eat zoas, which is what Todd was referring to above (twilliard), but the ones that do eat 'em need to be gotten rid of quickly. Inspect your zoas closely for eggs, as you'll be able to tell if that nudi is eating your zoas. Zoas are pretty resilient little creatures, though, so dipping won't hurt them, but if the nudis are eating your zoas and you don't get them off, bye to zoas. So just dip and look for survivors later, or look in the bucket bottom for them. Good luck!