ID this invert?

[jeittreim]

Can anyone help me ID this invert? I found it crawling over my zoo polyps today. doesn't seem to harm them, but never seen anything like it.

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[Europhyllia]

nudibranch? possibly zoa eating nudi

[Regric25]

yea looks like a nudi! If it is take it out because like Karin said if it is a zoa eating nudi they can destroy a colony pretty fast. Just to be safe I would take it out.

They can vary in size and color but here is a pic of what they look like. http://www.melevsreef.com/id/dc_nudibranch.jpg

[jeittreim]

That is what I was afraid of but I didn't want to go tearing apart the tank to try and catch it if it wasn't.....oh well.... anyone have any luck with any kinds of dips (I dread to mention it due to personal distaste for dipping corals) that might help draw it out? if not, any way I can bait/trap it? the ****ed thing is small and hides well in the colony rock with is a rather large POROUS rock!! I was lucky to catch sight of it when I did...

The photo is an exact match for it so I guess I don't have much choice...

[Regric25]

Honestly is you have one you probably have a lot in there that you havent seen yet. There is really no point in dipping the individual corals for them because they are all over the rockwork and sand. Im not saying you have an infestation like flatworms (<-- really bad stuff). Just keep an eye out for them on your zoas and use a turkey baster to suck them out. Usually they will turn the color of the zoas they are eating from my experience, so they blend in pretty good. If you want to search for them in your zoa colonies you can use a baster to gently blow water o the zoas to get them to close up and you might see them in between the polyps. just suck them up and flush them.

I had a pretty good collection of zoas and palys at one time and i only saw 2 nudis the whole time. I plucked them up and never had any problems again.

[ShAgMaN]

That's really hard for me to ID but if it is a zoa eating nudi they are very easy to kill. From my experience, the surrounding polyps would not open which doesn't appear to be the case here.

Freshwater dips from 30 sec. - 2 mins. will kill them, I was successful around the minute mark. Your zoas will be fine, but there may be more, so keep on the lookout. I always fresh water dip zoas for a minute or two. Nowadays it would be so painful to dislodge every colony just to dip. They usually take on the color of zoa they are eating, which makes them somewhat difficult to detect.

[Europhyllia]

you can find them easier after the real zoas close up for the night

[jeittreim]

GOT HIM!! I did the FW dip for about 2 minutes and he came out running. didn't see any others and the polyps are too close together to get a good look at the underside of them for eggs. I will have to keep a close eye on them for any unusual activity over the next couple of months.

SHagMan - THX a mill for the advice... in fact, thanks all to your advice.

I am looking into getting a 6-line wrasse and hopefully this will help with a more natural pesticide solution :-)

Here be the pic of the culprite I was able to catch :-) Again, thanks a million all

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[ShAgMaN]

Cool, glad you got him. Good call on the 6-line as well. I believe my tank is relatively pest free because of my 6-line...and he's grown a lot over the years eating buggers.