Tritoniopsis elegans in aquarium

January 22, 2003
From: Marc Daniels

I discovered the Nudibranch in the attached images in my aquarium a few days ago. I've also come across posts in other board forums asking for this to be identifed, but they never have been.

Do you have any idea what it is, and also the dietary habits. It's beautiful in my tank, but I don't want it eating anything in my reef. If I knew what it ate, I would like to establish a species specific small aquarium to house it in.
Thanks for any help,
Marc Daniels
Sacramento, CA
USA

marc_daniels@dstoutput.com

Daniels, M., 2003 (Jan 22) Tritoniopsis elegans in aquarium. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/8945

Dear Marc,
This is Tritoniopsis elegans. As you will see if you look at the other messages on this page, it is a specialised soft-coral feeder. If you are happy to keep buying soft-corals for it to eat you may be lucky and start a colony. Although, like all sea slugs, it is hermaphrodite, they don't self-fertilise, so you will need a second animal before breeding can commence, but again if your lucky, they tend to hitch rides on soft coral colonies so you might end up with another by accident. From other reports on the Forum which suggest this species does breed in aquaria, I assume that its larval life is very short, and probably non-feeding. If so, the likelihood of fertilised eggs resulting in young is quite high.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2003 (Jan 22). Comment on Tritoniopsis elegans in aquarium by Marc Daniels. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/8945

Factsheet

Tritoniopsis elegans

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