Regal sea godess

[jacksonmaurer]

i want to try to attempt to keep a regal sea goddess. im pretty experienced in the hobby. regal sea goddess seem to be the most redaly available true nudibranch. there favorite food Dysidea sponges also seem to be doable to obtain. my plan is to get 3 or 4 Dysidea species and grow them in a trash can with plenty of live rock, silicates and phytoplankton with a weak light. ill grow these sponges for a few months. assuming they thrive, i will obtain the nudibranch. ill put him in a 30 gallon peaceful tank and add in 1 sponge rock. ill see what species of sponge he eats best and focus on that. ill then switch out the rock when he eats all the sponge into the trash can. ill keep repeating this prosses. anyone think this will work or have any tips/ideas?

 

[MnFish1]

i want to try to attempt to keep a regal sea goddess. im pretty experienced in the hobby. regal sea goddess seem to be the most redaly available true nudibranch. there favorite food Dysidea sponges also seem to be doable to obtain. my plan is to get 3 or 4 Dysidea species and grow them in a trash can with plenty of live rock, silicates and phytoplankton with a weak light. ill grow these sponges for a few months. assuming they thrive, i will obtain the nudibranch. ill put him in a 30 gallon peaceful tank and add in 1 sponge rock. ill see what species of sponge he eats best and focus on that. ill then switch out the rock when he eats all the sponge into the trash can. ill keep repeating this prosses. anyone think this will work or have any tips/ideas?

I would expect it will be hard for you to keep up with the needs for sponge. However since their lifespan is less than a year or so - you are taking on a lot of work. Hopefully you'll succeed. There are reports of people keeping them. They grow very quickly - up to 1/2 inch a week - until 4-5 inches. Good luck.

 

[jacksonmaurer]

I would expect it will be hard for you to keep up with the needs for sponge. However since their lifespan is less than a year or so - you are taking on a lot of work. Hopefully you'll succeed. There are reports of people keeping them. They grow very quickly - up to 1/2 inch a week - until 4-5 inches. Good luck.

thanks, i’ll grow the sponges for a few months first so i can keep up

 

[MnFish1]

thanks, i’ll grow the sponges for a few months first so i can keep up

Sorry - I meant to add - I'm not sure that you're going to be able to grow enough sponges - or possibly keep them at all - they are not that easy either.

 

[jacksonmaurer]

Sorry - I meant to add - I'm not sure that you're going to be able to grow enough sponges - or possibly keep them at all - they are not that easy either.

ill do a ton of reasearch dose silicates and phyto along with a protine skimmer to keep nutrients low.

 

[jacksonmaurer]

Sorry - I meant to add - I'm not sure that you're going to be able to grow enough sponges - or possibly keep them at all - they are not that easy either.

a lot of dysedia species are known to grow very quickly in the right conditions

 

[MnFish1]

a lot of dysedia species are known to grow very quickly in the right conditions

That may be so - And there are a lot of reports (that do not seem all that convincing) - that the nudibranch also eats other things on live rock. I would try to make sure that the source of your sponges (locality) matches the source of your nudibranch.

 

[jacksonmaurer]

That may be so - And there are a lot of reports (that do not seem all that convincing) - that the nudibranch also eats other things on live rock. I would try to make sure that the source of your sponges (locality) matches the source of your nudibran

i

That may be so - And there are a lot of reports (that do not seem all that convincing) - that the nudibranch also eats other things on live rock. I would try to make sure that the source of your sponges (locality) matches the source of your nudibranch.

m planning to sorce everything from flordia.

 

[jacksonmaurer]

i

m planning to sorce everything from flordia.

ill also going to get 4-5 species incase the nudibranch doesent like some or some species die

 

[Clowning_Around72]

I don't have related experience to this, but maybe whatever you think might provide enough food, I'd aim for double the production space for sponges.

That way you have a backup in case something goes wrong and you have extra in the event of you being unable to keep up with the demand for sponges.

(side note, this would be an funny econ supply and demand example)

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I'll be honest that I don't expect this to work out for you, but in hopes that it will (I would love to be able to keep nudibranchs and sponges both) - here's some info that may helps with keeping sponges, and remember that the nudibranch probably only eats a handful of highly specific species of sponge from the Dysideidae family, which has dozens of species in it (so those 4-5 species of sponge may not be the right fit for the critter):

For keeping sponges, I'd suggest reading through the following threads (and any links to other threads in my posts in them):
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/sponge-tank.1039472/https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-hard-easy-to-grow-sponge.1031659/https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/is-this-ball-sponge-a-goner.1036957/

 

[Stomatopods17]

FWIW on sea slug forums the sponge itself seems to be the bigger hurdle keeping alive let alone having a sufficient amount of it to feed to the slug. No one there seems to have success with the sponges this specific species of nudibranch eats and its not like the slug is long lived itself either.

I have no idea how the actual feeding part works, pretty sure you cut the sponge once the whole thing can die. Doesn't seem like the type of sponges that show up in clusters in your overflow box.

I'd first move the goalpost back to the sponge success before the nudibranch, tbh I have no clue where you'd find either of them I've never seen them on the market before.