velvet nudibranch

[Anonymous]

Well, kudos to you for looking at a natural way over a chemical way. Let us know how the varians works out.

Peace,

Chip

 

[Mihai]

I can confirm that they are poor shippers: I got a couple from LiveAquaria and were unable to crawl or hold on to things (despite a long drip acclimatization). After a few days they just died and disappeared in the tank.
And yes, I'm sure they didn't get into the overflow or powerheads, as I covered them with pretty fine bridal veil.

Good luck with them - they are awesome animals and, I imagine, very interesting to watch.

M.

 

[Anonymous]

I'd rather do nothing than pour some chemical in my tank.

Also, a six line wrasse has always been on my fish list. It will be my next fish addition, flat worms or not, so I would wait to see what that animal did before trying a chemical anyway. More hit and miss than the nudi I know, but I planned on one since before I even got my tank.

Six lines are beautiful but seem to be poor shipers, not that these are any better but mandarins and scooter bleenys will make short work of plauge portions of flat worms. :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

Biological controls are hit and miss when it comes to flatworms.

 

[Mihai]

Oh, trust me on that: for me, it's a miss. I have a pair of mandarins and they don't make a dent in my flatworms.

M.

 

[Anonymous]

Damn! :x

He was doing very very well. Crawling all over the place and injesting flatworms by the dozen.

I have always had a large hitchhiker crab which does not appear predatory because it has thin claws with flat tips. It doesn't even go after meaty food...it does go crazy for nori or other herbivor foods. It spends all day eating algae off the rocks and it helps pick algae off of corals where snails do not go. I have been suspicious of him because small snails seem to get killed now and then.

Now I found a new crab....one that looks like the crab in mihai's avatar. An eriphia I believe. It is whitish, but it has the tell tale pointed claws of a predator. Never saw it before.

That crab had nudi chunks in its clutches and was devouring the poor nudibranch. :x

It's only the size of a dime. Too small to kill a fish, but large enough to tackle the tiny nudibranch.

Now it is my mission to catch that crab.

After I get him, I will add another nudibranch, since I am convinced that this one would have lived without the attack by that evil crab.


Thanks for all the interest by everyone. When I get a new nudibranch, I will post about it. Until then, I accept my mission as a crab hunter! :x :evil:

 

[fishaddict]

that stinks. was it one with the yellow tips?

 

[Anonymous]

I've done my reading, but I like to ask at the last minute before adding something I've never kept before.

I have an unsightly planeria problem. I've tried everything short of increasing flow, which is already high, and adding some flatworm killer chemical, which I don't want to do.

I'm adding an extra powerhead to increase flow next time I take the hood off to change a bulb (in a week or so).

My wife loves c. varians, but I've never wanted to add one because of the specialized diet. Now that I have something for them to eat, I figure I can toss him in.

In a 75 gallon tank, with as many flat worms as I have, I think he will be fine. If he eats them all, I will give him back to my LFS so he won't starve in my tank. He'll probably starve in someone else's tank, but they carry this species regularly, so it's not like I'm special ordering it. So I don't feel bad about that aspect.

My concern is whether he can nuke my tank after he is loaded with flatworm toxins. How big is the risk of this slug getting shredded in a powerhead intake or the overflow? I just have two weak powerheads and my overflow has tons of slots and it doesn't seem like the water rushes through inordinately fast.


Anyone kept these? I know Len has kept them in the past. What do you think Len?

I've found that they like to come up to the light. So I siphon as many out as possible during water changes and then I add a cute little 6-line wrasse or 12-line wrasse to eat the leftovers. Works EVERY time I've done it. Never have another problem as long as I have the wrasse.

 

[minibowmatt]

I have also battled FW. I won. I used FWE three times and did not have any adverse effects. I followed the directions to the letter. Siphon, dose, WC.

I do however believe FW are like nuisance algea,find out what is feeding them, and remove it, and the FW will go too. They also go through population explosions. They will explode and then dwindle to nothing, then explode again 6 months later.... I cant understand them... with that said, I do not know what they eat or what to "remove" to control them, and thats why I nuked them with FWE... I messed around for months trying to get rid of them naturally. FWE did it in three days.

 

[Anonymous]

I cant understand them... with that said, I do not know what they eat or what to "remove" to control them, and thats why I nuked them with FWE... I messed around for months trying to get rid of them naturally. FWE did it in three days.

Unfortunately they eat similar to many corals. They use symbiotic algae to produce sugar.

* edited for clarity

 

[minibowmatt]

Guy-- I had no idea? Everything I have read never mentioned that they eat corals, but more that they were unsightly and annoying. Do they prefer a specific coral? (softies. sps, Lps?)

 

[ChrisRD]

He didn't say they eat corals. He said they eat like many corals. :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

Symbiotic zooxanthali algae in their tissues give them energy.

 

[Anonymous]

Just an all around cool thread! 8)

Hey Manny, how much did you pay for the nudi?