Keeping Elysia crispata in aquaria

February 26, 2001
From: Alan Pittman

Hello there,
My name is Alan, I'm a Biology major in Little Rock, Arkansas. These solar powered slugs are probably one of the most interesting animals I have ever read about. I want to get some Elysia crispata from a marine supplier for my reef tank. The site says they eat hair algae, and after they eat the algae they will not harm other reef inhabitants. I really don't mind if it did munch on some other things, I just want one pretty bad. However after it eats all the hair, then what. Does it then starve to death. Can I feed it seaweed or lettuce. They are selling these things under the name Lettuce Nudibranch, and after much research I can see that it is an Elysia crispata. One final question, just how reliant is this creature on the plastid material it gathers from its food. Will it die without enough sunlight.
Thanks for reading
Alan Pittman

Demogarr@Yahoo.com

Pittman, A., 2001 (Feb 26) Keeping Elysia crispata in aquaria. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/3863

Dear Alan,
I am not an expert at keeping these animals alive in aquaria, but I would hope part of your interest is in succeeding. Clark & Busacca (1978) studied the ability of a number of sacoglossans to retain healthy chloroplasts and found that Elysia crispata was very efficient at doing so, showing that after 58 days of starvation, half the chloroplasts were still alive and functional. They found that after an initial weight loss, the weight of starving E. crispata stabilises after about 28 days, suggesting that at least for a couple of months the slugs can survive on the photosynthetic products of the chloroplasts.

In choice experiments they found that E. crispata would eat a number of species of siphonaceous green algae including Batophora oerstedi, Bryopsis plumosa, Halimeda spp, Penicillus spp, Caulerpa paspaloides and Caulerpa racemosa.

Jensen & Clark (1983) later showed that another species of Caulerpa, C. verticillata (a very finely branched species, which looks a bit like a tiny Christmas tree), is the preferred food of the juveniles of this species.

Have a look at Kathe Jensen's message below. In my comment on Ryan's message I suggested that this species had direct development but Kathe says that it has lecithotrophic development which is where the larvae are free-swimming, but only spend a short non-feeding period in the plankton. Ryan obviousy had success in breeding some E. crispata because he had turned off his filter system and so saved the veligers from being filtered out.

I would suspect that if you have one of the lights which allows algae to grow in aquaria you should have no problem keeping both the algae and Elysia happy. Perhaps you may need to have a second tank for growing algae but I am not sure how necessary that would be. Hopefully someone who has experience at keeping them alive will contact us.

References:
• Clark, K.B.; Busacca, M (1978) Feeding specificity and chloroplast retention in four tropical ascoglossa, with a discussion of the extent of chloroplast symbiosis and the evolution of the order. J. Moll. Stud. 44: 272-282,Figs1-3.
• Jensen, K. & Clark, K.B. 1983. Annotated checklist of Florida ascoglossan Opisthobranchia. The Nautilus 97: 1-13

In the mean time good luck, and keep us informed on how you go,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2001 (Feb 26). Comment on Keeping Elysia crispata in aquaria by Alan Pittman. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/3863

Factsheet

Elysia crispata

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