Sea Slug

[Anonymous]

Already posted this to the Sea Slug forum but I thought I would post it here as well. I believe I have id'd it as a Tritoniopsis elegans but we are not sure. I'm sure it is a Tritoniid. They seem to be arriving with shipments from the indo-pacific, from LR to coral shipments. They supposedly feed on the soft coral Lobophyton.

 

[Anonymous]

Well Bill Rudman is the guy to ask.
It is very possible that is what it is but trying to ID nudi's is way beyond my expertise.;-)
While they do feed on Lobobophyton they also feed on other soft corals.
BTW while these critters are hermaphrodites unless you have two of them, they do not selve fertilize and unless you have multiples of them and plenty of coral to munch on, they will probably starve to death in a captive reef.

Regards,
David Mohr

 

[Anonymous]

About 60 seconds after I posted my original message here I went back and discovered the 'search' feature at Sea Slug Forum

and confirmed that is was indeed a T. elegans from Rudman's answers to others. Today he responded on the forum and confirmed it as well.

Does seem to feed on other softies, in fact Rudman suggests that its quite easy to keep them as long as you are willing to sacrifice the occasional softie, which considering the relative ease of creating such food wouldn't be a bad idea.

They seem to be quite common, at least within the last couple of months as I have been seeing quite a few lately in coral and LR shipments.