Re: Advice of keeping Elysia in captivity

September 24, 2001
From: Claude Poole

Note added 30 May 2006: This may also refer to Elysia clarki, a new species which was previously considered a colour form of E. crispata

Hello Kathe,
Sorry for butting in. I have a couple of adult Elysia crispata who presented me with several babies some weeks back. I had purchased the adults to help with an outbreak of Bryopsis. Unfortunately I would have needed an army to rid the tank of the plague. It disappeared as suddenly as it appeared, perhaps because I hiked my alkalinity. For some weeks the slugs seemed to be finding enough left over on the rocks. Then they munched on the cyanobacteria which followed the death of massive amounts of Bryopsis. I know they were feeding on the cyano because their color changed to include some purple. They are obviously starving slowly and I feel very badly.

I tried, unsuccessfully, for weeks to find the Caulerpa verticillata which you mention. If you have a source, I would be very grateful if you let me know. I live in the US. I had purchased the slugs from Pete at Reeftopia.com. Pete is a diver off the coast of Florida. They were beautiful and I would like to keep them as an addition to my reeftank. One of the adults grew to 4" in length when extended. The babies are now about 1".

Thanks,
Claude

poolzoo1@cs.com

Poole, C., 2001 (Sep 24) Re: Advice of keeping Elysia in captivity. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/5328

Dear Claude,
Don't apologise for butting in - that's what you are supposed to do. I hope you have some success at keeping them alive. Have a look doen this page at other messages on this animal. You will see that it does eat other green algae. I suspect if you have a light that assists plant growth you shouldn't have too much problem growing an algal film and filamentous green algae - though I guess you will have to stop 'hiking up the alkalinity'.
Cheers,
Bill Rudman

Factsheet

Elysia crispata

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