Little Slug/snail

[james_fish]

Hi, I have a small reef tank around 12-13 us gallons,

Today I noticed a small slug type creature on the front glass pane.
It has a white underbelly with a black back and 'feelers' & is about 3/4's of an inch in length. Here's a picture, not the best but hopefully it's good enough so you can determine what it



Should I remove it? Or is it beneficial?

Cheers guys, James.

 

[lljdma06]

From the underbelly, it's shaped like a planaria, but any way to get a picture of the back?

No shell?

L

 

[james_fish]

Hi L, Thanks for the response.

This is the best I could do photo wise for the back. Not sure whether it's shell or just.. you know... Skin?




James.

 

[lljdma06]

Weirdness, I'll have to look this one up when I get to my books. Doing a google search yielded one quick result saying it was a snail of some type, yep with a rudimentary shell, but the website didn't allow me access.

L

 

[Donya]

Bigger pics would help a lot for a more certain ID, but from those it looks like a species of Sacoglossan sea slug. If that's what it is, it will be an herbivore that feeds on algaes like Caulerpa by puncturing the exterior and sucking the juices out.

 

[james_fish]

It's moved to the back pane of the tank now so I've got another picture of it's back. You can just make it out.

It's like a black/grey patchy/speckled pattern.



I'll also do a little more research upon returning from work this evening.

Cheers, James.

 

[Donya]

Maybe something in Elysiidae like Thuridilla. Concrete IDs of sea slugs to the species level really require clear pics that show the animal itself in quite a bit of detail. That's hard to do on such little animals, so I doubt it will be possible with this one unless you remove it for photographing in something like a petri dish. I wouldn't recommend trying to do so though, as you could badly injure it in the process - and there is no reason to remove a Sacoglossan slug. It has probably been in there for quite a while feeding on the sorts of macro you have growing. To see what you're up against for a narrower ID within Sacoglossa, have a look at the species list here and scroll down to "Order Sacoglossa"...

http://www.seaslugforum.net/specieslist.htm

 

[lljdma06]

I didn't know Chuck Norris had a reef.

I want to see Chuck Norris' reef.

Chuck Norris' Saltwater tank...

Sorry, for the hijack, I just haven't had a good Chuck Norris laugh in a while.

Glad the slug thing was id'd, I was very useless during this whole process.

L

 

[james_fish]

I didn't know Chuck Norris had a reef.

I want to see Chuck Norris' reef.

Chuck Norris' Saltwater tank...

Sorry, for the hijack, I just haven't had a good Chuck Norris laugh in a while.

Glad the slug thing was id'd, I was very useless during this whole process.

L

Haha, it's not quite that but I may start a little journal for it sometime. Strictly speaking it's owned by my dad (I wasn't really after another project) But I overlook it and give my old man a help with the maintenance etc. Im happy with though, looks good. We've added a few corals and have a Occelaris Clown and a Blenny that came with it. Both fish I know get to a size in which they would be recommended for a bigger tank. But for now, it's all about research and learning. I'll be after some Coral ID's etc soon. Man it feels good to be a novice again.

Thanks for that Donya, a massive help

James.