Elysia crispata - Lettuce Nudibranch/Sea Slug experiences?

[samnaz]

Who has experience keeping Elysia crispata - Green Sea Slug/Lettuce Nudibranch? 

 

It is my understanding they are one of few sea slugs that are considered somewhat suitable for reef tanks. From what I have read about them, the biggest concern is they may get sucked into power heads, pumps, filters, etc.

 

For those of you who have had success with these little guys, how do you keep this from happening? 

 

I have an AC110 which can easily be made slug-proof by adding the sponge pre-filter to the intake tube, but what about power heads? Could some sort of thin netting or screen be used to cover dangerous objects? Or would that cause issues for power heads such as clogging?

 

Please share your experiences, good and bad!

[BulkRate]

If by "has experience" you mean "I've killed a couple" then I qualify.

 

Two common varieties show up on the market... Elysia Crispata (green, Caribean/Atlantic) and Elysia Diomedea (brown w/spots, Pacific).  I tried keeping the latter, only to discover that I didn't have the right macroalgae at the time (byropsis or POSSIBLY padina) for it to feed on - but it died from other reasons before starvation became the issue.  Crispata's supposedly a lot less finicky and supposedly will also eat some varieties of caulerpa.  I still have the padina I added for my E. Diomedea growing in this tank to this day.

 

My main problem was them committing suicide a month or so in.  One squoze (squeezed?) its way through the air gap in the tank lid (about 1.5 mm gap!) and dried itself to death on top of the tank when the lights came on.  The 2nd (and last) one seemed to get its back half mulched by the propeller on my Korallia 280, having found the one gap in the shield I;d constructed around the powerhead to avoid this.

[Clown79]

Same with me. Couldn't keep them alive.

 

They get caught in the current and straight into a powerhead.

 

[jeffmr4]

I have one that seems to be ok.  He goes near my pump but never gets sucked into it.  It is a gyre xf-130 on the lowest setting.  I'm guessing he/she might try to crawl out of the tank if they could.  A couple of times I've seen him/her near the top of the tank but it has a glass cover.  Haven't had him/her for very long.