Cute, Nuisance or Both

Hello,

I was feeding the tank this morning and noticed this little guy on the glass he then moved down to the sand after the lights came on. This is a close up shot and total size right now is about a quarter of an inch. Is this a deadly hitch hiker that can damage corals or a harmless adorable addition to my cleaning crew?

 

He actually looks like a Zoanthid Eating Nudibranchi. What new corals have you gotten lately?

Welcome to 3reef.

 

Thanks. The answer to that is nothing recently from a coral perspective I got some alien eye Zoas but well over a month ago. I haven't added any new rock either. The last recent addition was Copepods and amphipods from get your pods. Not sure if it could have arrived there. I would be open to other opinions but if I see this thing again should I remove it?

 

It came in on your Zoanthids, but by all means wait for other opinions. If it looks like any of your Zoanthids than that is what it is eating.

 

Thank you definitey open to other opinions but I'll likely remove it if I see it again. Do these types of nudibranchs stay small, do they reproduce quickly? I've already dealt with an aptasia outbreak and a caulerpa outbreak. The last thing I want now is coral eating slugs. It is kind of cute though.

 

I absolutely love Nudibrach, the problem lies in that they are food/coral specific eaters, often looking like what they eat. The Nudibranch needs that specific coral to survive, once it eats it's food source it dies. They will leave an egg mass, sometimes spiral, on the coral they dine on. There are thousands of kinds of Nudibranch.Zoanthid, Sacrcophyton, Xenia, Monitpora eathing Nudibranch are the most common types we as hobbyist see.

 

now I would like to find some Xenia eating nudibranchs...

 

How about some caulerpa eating nudibranches.

 

Lettuce Nudibranch are very pretty and eat algae. from my recollection they are pretty reef safe.

 

When I FIRST got my liverock, and setup my biocube.. something similar was on the glass that night.. I never saw it again so assumed it starved out.