Can nuidibranchs such as these be maintained in a home reef

[iroll253]

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...ibranchs&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&sa=N&um=1

If you click the main center collage it will bring you to a whole gallery of them.

How hard would it be to fine these of such variety?

 

[iroll253]

Also what kind of pink nudi and shrimp pair is that?

 

[TJL]

Thats an awsome link, you would think one or two would be feasable to keep in a reef tank & might not have so specialized of a diet to make it impossible.

Todd

 

[johnpeezy]

I saw a purple and orange one like one of the pictures at a store in lacey.
The guy said it was doing great, but umm yeah I didn't really believe him.

 

[agc]

Wow, those are gorgeous nudis!

I've always been told that they are hard to keep in a tank because they have such specialized diets.

I saw a purple and orange one like one of the pictures at a store in lacey.
The guy said it was doing great, but umm yeah I didn't really believe him.

 

[iroll253]

I just want to come across one or two similar to those. They would make a great addition to any reef!

 

[kalristo]

owww niceeee

 

[balogh03]

From everything I remember reading, for the most part we don't know what many of them eat. However the ones we do know about eat only one thing. That is why the only ones normally recommended for a tank are algae eating ones (lettuce nudi, sea hare) and the aptasia eating ones(notice both are dull in color). I don't think that we can accommodate enough of a specialized diet for the rest of them. Another thing that I notice is that they normally look like what they eat... If they look like algae, anenomes, coral polyps, ect. That is probably where they spent most of there time eating. Remember these are just my thoughts and observations so don't quote me on any of it, but I attached some extra reading for you as well.

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/nudibran.htm

Good luck

-augustus

 

[TWallace]

I'm pretty sure all nudibranchs are carnivorous with highly specialized diets. They usually only eat one single thing. For example, Berghias will eat aiptasia but not majano or other pest anemones. Sea hares and lettuce nudibranchs are not actually nudibranchs. They're just called that incorrectly. Much like the yellow Coris wrasse is not actually a Coris wrasse, it's a Halichoeres wrasse.

In short, I doubt any of those exotic nudibranchs would survive long in captivity, unless you had the food it will eat (it's very likely they'll only eat one particular item). Even then, you'd have to control the population of nudibranchs so that they don't eradicate their food source and starve.