Is this a nudibranch?
- Thread starter dpd3672
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Sure looks like a nudibranch to me. Any chance you could get some pics of it under brighter white light (such as while shining a flashlight on it)?
It’s a bit dark for me to make out some of the details, but my first thought would be a Dendronotid (taxonomic family Dendronotidae) nudibranch of some kind, possibly a Dendronotus sp.
It’s a bit dark for me to make out some of the details, but my first thought would be a Dendronotid (taxonomic family Dendronotidae) nudibranch of some kind, possibly a Dendronotus sp.
It may help to put it in a bowl of tank water and get a few pics out of the tank with it (one top-down straight-on shot, one full-length side shot, and one straight-on toward the head looking down the body).
I'm not sure if you should pull it or not, but most people probably would just to be safe.
My best guess at the moment (from what I can see looking more carefully at the video) is a Marionia sp., possibly one of the following (though I don't know for certain, and there are at least a few other genera I'd need to look at in more depth before feeling really confident):
-M. echinomuriceae
-M. kinoi
-M. olivacea
-M. rubra
-M. viridescens
If it is a Marionia sp., then it likely eats soft corals/gorgonians. If it's a similar looking species from a different genus, then it most likely eats either soft corals/gorgonians, or hydroids. (Looking at your latest pic though, I have to ask - are those hydroids in the macroalgae? If so, it may well be feeding on those.)
Either way, they're still nudibranchs, so they'll likely only feed on a handful of species (most that I've found are only thought to eat species from ~1-3 genera), so it'll most likely starve in the tank.
dpd3672
New Member
I don't think there are hydroids in the macroalgae.
I split a little macro from my main tank refugium and put small plastic refugiums in my other tanks just so the copepods that I supplement have a safe "home base." The little, cheap, Amazon refugium floats near the top of the tank, there's a little culture of macro in each one, and when I add copepods, I just pour them into the refugium. I also supplement phytoplankton directly to the little refugium so the copepods have some food and some makes it into the main tank.
That SHOULD be the only thing in there, although as the video shows, a snail managed to sneak in from the main tank...little safecracker got into the lid which snaps (loosely) closed.
Alright, because it looks like there might be some to the right of the nudibranch in that last pic. As long as the nudibranch can't get into the DT from the refugium, it should be fine to leave it there.
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