Wondering about nudibranches

[djchristone]

this has been a weird night and considering the time, i doubt i'm going to get any answers quick.

 

but yeah, i woke up cuz my roommate didn't turn off his alarm when he left i turn the damn thing off and i turn and look at my tank which oddly, my orange clown isn't sleeping inside of the palys like he always does. no instead he's swimming at the surface of the water. wtf?

 

then i notice my kaudern's cardinal is doing the same thing when he usually sleeps/lurks near my acans in the opposite corner. i notice my black clown already dead and stuck on the filter...

 

i pulled the black clown out, attempted to catch the orange clown but is now hiding in the rocks. pulled the kaudern's out and is now in my picotope with my angler. no sign of my flame hawk. i go and look to see where my orange clown is, hoping there's a chance i can pull him out (hiding behind ALL my rock work ) when i see something on the glass...

 

first i think it's my rose nem moving around...until i see my rose nem actually hasn't moved at all...

 

no, this bastarge is a 5 inch long nudibranch i have never seen before.

 

i'm not exactly sure what the hell is going on here. i tested my tank before i went to bed and again, all params are zero. but all my fish are dying or are extremely stressed.

 

could the nudibranch be the cause of this?

i'm thinking it might not be the problem because i've had this orange clown for months and any rock i added was from one of my established tanks already. if the nudibranch is the problem, shouldn't it have affected my clown or other tanks in the past? yet, i can't deny that when i was bringing this bastard up, the thing was covered completely in slime and just oozing it the hell out.

 

i'm completely lost here and would appreciate answers asap about anything nudibranch vs fish.

 

btw, i threw the nudibranch and the black perc away on the same paper towel. they were 2 inches away or so from each other yet when i went back to take pics, the nudi was actually on the clown and moving closer to it -__-

 

i'll post pics of this nudibranch later. i'm going back to bed -__- nevertheless, here's a pic from online as to what it looked like:

the one in the middle with the spots

 

---

 

quick edit

btw, the rest of my coral seem incredibly happy for once although that might be attributed to the fact that i raised salinity earlier from .020 to .023 or something. but my mico colony, elegance coral, and plate coral are all dead -___- the move to my dorm did not make them happy -__-

 

i just took a look at my kaudern and his color has returned and he's quite perky again. just wish i could catch my clown now...:\ i also wish i had some carbon

[dshnarw]

its possible that the nudi is the source of the problem - i think most likely caused by some sort of stress it was under (maybe the black clown took a nip at it?, causing it to slime/release toxin?). I'd definitely keep the nudi out and run carbon, do a good waterchange, and see if that helps.

 

Edit: sorry to hear about your clown

[spanko]

The following is an excerpt from WetWebMedia.

 

 

Another major difficulty is that these snails are empowered with skin glands that produce potent poisons; some species make sulfuric acid, others non-acidic noxious substances. There are celebrated species that use the cnidocysts (stinging cells, nematocysts) they reprocess from eating stinging-celled animals. Others have spicules embedded in their mantle. With their sudden and mysterious death, this stuff ends up in your water.

 

To reduce the potential for disaster you need good chemical filtration with adequate circulation, regular partial water changes and a watchful eye on what you have and where it's at in your system.

 

To emphasize the above point I like to recount my experience with a certain Spanish dancer, a swimming nudibranch. That's right, some of these snails are truly butterflies of the sea; in constant motion. Once at a Sears-Roebucks in the early seventies, when they were in the live pet business, we had a tank that whatever fish we put in, it would become shy and perish within a few days. We tried all the usual; massive water changes, dumping the tank completely, even throwing away the gravel, including the decor, all to no avail. Enough study and discussion led us finally to realize that the Spanish Dancer (swimming nudibranch) that had been in the tank had bumped up against the tank walls depositing stinging cells all over. These were zapping and debilitating everything they came in contact with. Once more we dumped, acid-bleach washed and salt-scrubbed the sides of the tank. Subsequently we were able to keep other livestock alive. Some of these snails even feed on the Portuguese-man-o-war. Yowch!

[djchristone]

great...

 

thanks for the info guys

 

managed to catch my orange clown, hopefully he'll pull through

[spanko]

Yeah and get some carbon filter pads to run for a couple of days.

Hope everything turns out okay.