Pet Forum / Aquaria / Marine Reef / May 2005

They don't live longer than a year, it is normal.

Hi Billy,

I think it would be a good idea to redefine what you mean by "long term
luck". The thing is that most sea slugs just don't live very long; a one
year life span is probably the most likely lifespan for a given species.
Very few species are longer lived than that and there are lots of species
that only live a few months. The species that Marc shows on his website
appears to be Elysia crispata and there are several references on the web
that indicate this is one of the 'one-year' species.

OTOH: There have been some successes in having these guys breed in home
aquaria. Reproductively speaking, sea slugs are some wild and crazy folks.
They are usually hermaphroditic and if you get two of them they WILL
fertilize each other and lay eggs (assuming that they're not already spawned
out). Further, there's actually a pretty good chance that the eggs will
survive to hatch. After that it's just a question of whether your pumping
system will destroy the larva or not.

You can find more info here:
http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet.cfm?base=elyscris

Nomenclature trivia: Elysia crispata is a sea slug but it's NOT a
nudibranch. As I understand it, nudibranchs are by definition, carnivorous.
E. crispata is a member of the order Sacoglossa. Sacoglossans are
vegetarians that are characterized by having a specialized radular tooth
that they use to slit open the cells of the algae so that they can suck out
the protoplasm. In the case of Elysia spp. (and maybe some other
Sacoglossans as well) they have the capability of segregating the
chloroplasts from the rest of the cell contents and putting them to work
producing sugars for the slug's use. It is generally assumed that the frills
on E. crispata's back are there to increase the area available for
photosynthesis.

Herbivorously yours,

TPG

I bought 6 about 3 months ago, and have seen 1.5 of them
recently.  They do end up in pumps, overflows, down in the
refugium, on the glass and occasionally on the bryopsis.  LOL.

The good news is my bryopsis is less than it was before.
Not gone, but also not nearly as bad as it was.

Marc

I used to be far more regular here, but get buried with
emails and thread notifications from RC & DFWMAS.

Marc