Spurilla neapolitana from Gulf of Mexico

August 8, 2005
From: Brian Plankis


Dear Sea Slug forum,

I recently purchased some Florida aquacultured live rock and I received these two nudibranches on the rock as hitchhikers. I'm relatively new to the reef hobby and completely new to nudibranches, can anyone narrow down what species this might be? Is there something else you need a picture of to ID?

Greenbean on reefcentral thought they might be Spurilla neapolitana. To test this I decided to feed it what some people call "tulip" anemones, two of the pictures show them eating them quite readily.

The location below is an estimate as Richard from Tampa Bay Saltwater can give you the exact details. Now that I know it has a food source for a while, what else should I supply to keep them alive? Temperature, salinity and other water parameters, aeration?

Locality: 20 miles NW of Tampa, Florida, USA Gulf of Mexico. Depth: 30-40 feet. Length: 1 inch. 05 August 2005. Photographer: Brian Plankis

Thanks,
Brian

garagebrian@yahoo.com

Plankis, B., 2005 (Aug 8) Spurilla neapolitana from Gulf of Mexico . [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/14503

Dear Brian,
Your message is a remarkable coincidence as I am posting another message from Colombia today [#14490] about a similar animal, and recently another from Portugal [#14467]. As you will see there is some debate about the true identity of this animal, so your photos are useful in that discussion..

You shouldn't have many problems keeping it alive in an aquaria. As long as you keep the water healthy for other marine life there si no reason why it shouldn't thrive on anemones. If you want to try a little experiment it would be interesting to know how much its body colour is dependent on the colour of the anemones it eats. You could feed it just on green anemones for a while and then swap to red or orange or brown anemones to see what happens. If you decide to try please take some photos to keep a record of what happens.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2005 (Aug 8). Comment on Spurilla neapolitana from Gulf of Mexico by Brian Plankis. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/14503

Factsheet

Spurilla neapolitana

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