Lettuce Sea Slug behavior and feeding

April 13, 2006
From: Patrick Glenn

Note added 30 May 2006: This is most probably Elysia clarki, a new species which was previously considered a colour form of E. crispata.

I have 4 lettuce sea slugs [Elysia crispata ] in my 29g reef (yeah, probably 2 if not 3 too many - I ordered 2 and the online store sent me 4). I have had them in there for a couple months. [Length: 1/2" to 1"] Only one of them explores the entire tank, another explores sometimes, but the other two and the "sometimes" one mostly hang out on the glass at the top of the tank, always at about the same spot, in the direct flow of my power filter and obviously near the light, and the two don't move hardly at all.

I have a couple of times taken them all and placed them within the rock but they end up back at the tank top. My question is, is this considered "normal"?  I figured they are partially photosynthetic but they are getting little if any solid food, other than what they may be filtering/catching in the water flow. should I be concerned with their health? they so far don't seem to be adversely affected, at least on the outside.

As a supplement I was gonna place some Chaetomorpha (sp?) from my refugium in the tank for them. would this be good for them? or perhaps a form of Caulerpa.

Patrick

pglenn_test@yahoo.com

Glenn, P., 2006 (Apr 13) Lettuce Sea Slug behavior and feeding. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/16298

Dear Patrick,
Since living in an aquarium is far from normal for these animals it is hard to answer your question about what is normal. Some times in aquaria, animals will seem to take a liking to being near a water current or even an air bubbler but it is often an individual thing rather than a species thing so I have no idea why they do it. Your animals are 'solar powered' to some extent so as long as the chloroplasts in their tissues survive I guess they can get nutrition from the chloroplast photosynthesis. I guess the test is when they need to replace the chloroplasts, which don't survive for ever. There seems to be some confusion at present over just how many different algae E. crispata eats to obtain chloroplasts so I cant really give you advice there. When you say you plan to put some ' Chaetomorpha  from your refugium' in for the Elysia to eat, I guess you are using ' Chaetomorpha' loosely. Anything is worth a try but these animals feed by sucking the sap out of the algae so you need to put in living plants still attached to something. Don't just pull off some filaments and throw them in. I don't think that would work. Perhaps if you put some rocks in your refugium to grow green algae you could set up a crop rotation system moving the rocks in and out of the aquarium as the slugs cropped the algae.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2006 (Apr 13). Comment on Lettuce Sea Slug behavior and feeding by Patrick Glenn. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/16298

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