Purple nudibranch in aquarium

October 26, 2006
From: Nishan Ragoonanan

Hi,
I've recently set up a reef aquarium (two months old) and a few days ago, my girlfriend noticed a purple slug crawling around. He seems to have made his home in some green star polyps. He's about half an inch long and moves really slowly. About once a day from what we can tell, he'll explore the aquarium and then come back to "nest" in the coral. Since he's been there the polyps haven't been opening. Can anyone provide an id on him and tell me if he's reef safe. Also how do we keep him alive? My girlfriend loves him.
Thanks much

Locality: Houston, Tx, USA, Reef Aquarium, Aug 17th, 2006. Length: half inch

Nishan Ragoonanan

trinichild@houston.rr.com

Ragoonanan, N., 2006 (Oct 26) Purple nudibranch in aquarium. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/17643

Dear Nishan.,
This is a tritoniid. Have a look at some of the species on the Species List in the family Tritoniidae. They all feed on soft corals so I suspect the animal arrived in your aquarium on some soft coral, which I am afraid it will be eating. I can't give it a name as there are still many problems in identifying memebers of this family, and not knowing just where in the world your animal came from, doesn't make identification any easier. I hope you and your girlfriend can reach an accomodation between her love of the nudibranch and your love of your soft corals.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2006 (Oct 26). Comment on Purple nudibranch in aquarium by Nishan Ragoonanan. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/17643

Factsheet

Aquarium finds - unlocalised, unidentified

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