Re: Elysia crispata feeding

July 16, 2004
From: Pszemol

Note added 30 May 2006: This may refer to Elysia clarki, a new species which was previously considered a colour form of E. crispata

I am a fish tank hobbyist and I have one Elysia crispata in my 30 gallons tank. I would like to confirm it does eat Derbesia (or Bryopsis - I am not sure which one is in my tank).

I saw it the other day near the side glass, at the patch of green hair algae... So I ran for my stamp loupe and started staring at this beautifull creature... Hair algae under 10x magnification looked like long tubes filled with transparent, green liquid... The Lettuce slug's technique of eating algae is very interesting: It aproaches a single hair with its soft mouth and hugs it with its lips. Then you can notice like puncturing the cell wall of the algae and it starts sucking out the green fluid from the algae. When the walls of the algae body collapse, the slug fills it back with water (saliva?) and goes back to sucking... You can clearly see grean parts of algae body intermixed with transparent or whitish saliva (?)flowing in sucking action to the slug mouth. Sucking and refills repeat many times until the algae cell is completely empty and transparent clean.

I also have some Halimeda species and Feather Caulerpa, but I did not observe it while eating these. I am kind of disappointed with what I just read here about their short life span. Is this common to all slugs? What are the signs of the elder stage? I am thinking to purchase more of these snails to help control the outbreak of Derbesia in my tank.
Greetings to all!
Pszemol
Chicago, IL.

pszemol@bigfoot.com

Pszemol, 2004 (Jul 16) Re: Elysia crispata feeding. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/12583

Dear Pszemol,
Your observation of the slugs sucking in the cell contents than regurgitating some of the material back into the plant is an interesting observation. It is called buccal regurgitation and has been reported by Kathe Jensen (1981) for a number of species including Ercolania funerea, Placida kingstoni and Elysia ornata. I don't know what its function is, or if it has been reported for Elysia crispata or other sacoglossans, but its certainly a useful observation.

Don't be too depressed about their relatively short life span. You'll see from other messages that quite a few people have been successful in breeding many replacements. You just need 2 to start with.

• Jensen, K.R. (1981) Observations on feeding methods in some Florida ascoglossans. Journal of Molluscan Studies, 47: 190-199.

Best wishes
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2004 (Jul 16). Comment on Re: Elysia crispata feeding by Pszemol. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/12583

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