Pest? Friend? Foe?

[AlexR9364]

OK guys, any ideas what this is? A sea hare? A nudibranch? ( Are those one and the same? ) Is it a friend or foe? I grabbed it off some GSP and it is currently isolated outside the tank. I do dip all my corals and I haven't added anything new for months, so not sure where it has come from...

 

[randomfishdude]

Flatworm I think?

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

If it's off GSP I assume it's a octocoral-eating nudibranch, though @ISpeakForTheSeas any insights?


Also as an FYI, sea hares are a beneficial species of nudibranch. What you have definitely looks like a nudibranch of some species, though unlikely a beneficial species

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Yeah, the pic is a bit yellow and blurry to make out the pattern clearly, but I'd guess an Arminid nudibranch, probably a Dermatobranchus sp. - so, most likely an octocoral eater (eating things like soft corals, gorgonians, GSP, etc.)

Edit: To clarify though, sea hares aren't nudibranchs - they come from the taxonomic Order Aplysiida; nudibranchs come from the taxonomic order Nudibranchia (though you could argue the title includes Pleurobranchs, which would mean the title nudibranch would be applied to the superorder Nudipleura).

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

Yeah, the pic is a bit yellow and blurry to make out the pattern clearly, but I'd guess an Arminid nudibranch, probably a Dermatobranchus sp. - so, most likely an octocoral eater (eating things like soft corals, gorgonians, GSP, etc.)

Edit: To clarify though, sea hares aren't nudibranchs - they come from the taxonomic Order Aplysiida; nudibranchs come from the taxonomic order Nudibranchia (though you could argue the title includes Pleurobranchs, which would mean the title nudibranch would be applied to the superorder Nudipleura).

My bad, always thought sea hares were nudibranchs