Tritoniopsis elegans - causing aquarium problems

November 11, 2002
From: Sam Young

Thanks so much for helping identify the nudibranch that I observed in my tank as Tritoniopsis elegans. They certainly are beautiful animals. It was fascinating to see them lay eggs, have them hatch and then observe the babies crawling on the glass. The fascination ended when my largest soft coral started to decline and then completely disappeared. I have a 225 gallon tank. Several soft corals remain. 2 have been attacked and I hope they will survive. At this point I have removed about 20 elegans from the base of my soft corals. They multiply very fast. If there is a natural enemy to these nudibranch that is available for a reef tank I would be highly interested. In the meantime I plan on tearing the entire tank down to hopefully root out any remaining animals or egg strings.
Any ideas?
Sam Young

liberty-sam@msn.com

Young, S., 2002 (Nov 11) Tritoniopsis elegans - causing aquarium problems. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/8399

Dear Sam,
Sorry to hear of your disaster but it does raise an interesting point. From your observations it seems that this nudibranch has an abbreviated larval stage, which as far as I know has not been reported for this species before. 'Usually' a small free-swimming veliger larva hatches from each egg, and the larva spends days or sometimes weeks in the plankton, feeding on microscopic plants before settling down on to the bottom and transforming into a microscopic carnivorous slug. The plankton-feeding larval stage makes nudibranch particularly difficult to breed in aquaria. Some species however, have an abbreviated larval stage. In some cases, the veliger larvae does not feed and only lasts a few hours or days in the plankton before settling. In other cases a small crawling slugs hatches directly from the egg.

From your observations T. elegans has one of these abbreviated forms of larval development. Not good news for your aquarium I'm afraid, but certainly quite an interesting bit of information for those of us interested in nudibranchs. I don't suppose you have any photos of the eggs or the babies on your aquarium glass?

Concerning how to get rid of them from your aquarium. I'm sorry but I don't what you are doing is probably the only way. If any one else with an aquarium has had a similar experience I would like to know. Certainly if we can confirm that Tritoniopsis elegans does breed easily in aquaria, it is a nudibranch that should be treated with some caution by aquarium keepers
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2002 (Nov 11). Comment on Tritoniopsis elegans - causing aquarium problems by Sam Young. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/8399

Factsheet

Tritoniopsis elegans

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