Seaslugs as pets

March 29, 2000
From: Steven Grant

I have a 29 gallon saltwater tank and have recently bought a small seaslug (possibly a Chromodoris elizabethina). I would like to know how they reproduce because the day after we bought it, it left a small spiral made of tiny dots (white and almost translucent). I was wondering if it was eggs or waste.

Steven Grant

grants@shawnee.edu

Grant, S., 2000 (Mar 29) Seaslugs as pets. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/2167

Dear Steven,
As you'll see from other messages below yours on this page keeping nudibranchs in aquaria is not very easy.

Concerning breeding. They are hermaphrodites, which means they have a fully functioning set of male and female organs but they are not self-fertilising. In many species the male organs are functional much earlier than the female parts and it seems that sperm is exchanged and stored for some time before eggs are ready to be fertilised. If your animal has laid eggs they were probably fertilised before the animal was rudely removed from its natural environment.

Another feature of Sea Slugs is that they often lay eggs as a reponse to a shock or trauma. I often find that within a few hours of collection, specimens will lay and egg ribbon. However don't get your hopes up about breeding a herd of babies. Sometimes eggs laid like this are infertile, and even if they are fertile the chances are that the embryos will hatch out as free-swimming veliger larvae which you will be unable to keep alive.

To see some pictures of different sorts of Sea Slug egg masses go to the SEARCH button at the top of the page and type in egg or eggs. You will get a long list of egg photos in the Forum. Use the SEARCH button to look for information on larva, and also go to the General Topics Index.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman.

Rudman, W.B., 2000 (Mar 29). Comment on Seaslugs as pets by Steven Grant. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/2167

Factsheet

Keeping sea slugs in captivity

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