ACROPORA EATING NUDIBRANCH?

[Sherri F.]

Good evening y'all! I could use some experienced eyes to take a look at this slug-like thing and offer some opinion on identity. It's cute, but not THAT cute. I just received an order of 8 frags from the same vender so I want to err on the side of caution in case it's a bad guy. I put the few photos I could get of the thing into chatGPT and it says it's most certainly an Acro Eating Nudi. But, I've found it to often be incorrect. The arrow it to point out that the head/neck appears to move indepe

ndently from the 'shoulders', in case that's a clue. And I'm wondering if the stuff in the circle could be eggs. Sooo, what am I dealing with here?

 

[EnterName]

Under the assumption that it has some odd flaps on its back, I would say Elysia sp. like E. flava, E. obtusa, E. translucense, ...

If it has a smooth back it could also be Vayssierea sp. (See page 6, post #101: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/microscopy-thread.1138845/post-14449376)
Edit: I think I see the flaps in one image so it's more likely Elysia sp. There are other genera that come into question, but Elysia is the most common hitchhiker regarding nudibranchs that I'm aware of.

The color seems a little bit off for all those candidates though. It might be the light, white balance of the camera, or the slug's diet though.


Acropora-eating nudis have very long branches coming out of ther back instead so I don't think that's it.