5 Gallon Concept Aquarium | Zoanthid Eating Nudibranch Aquarium

[Northwest_Scapes_]

Some of you may've already heard about my idea, and turns out in the span of 24 hours from idea to talking about it, it'll be happening. The title is true, this tank will be a pico / nano (depends on if you consider the cutoff for pico at 5 gallons) tank dedicated to just Zoanthid Eating Nudibranchs! The backstory is that I've seen some photos and clips of Zoanthid Eating Nudibranchs being the color of the Zoanthid they were eating after a few bites. The thing that got really got me interested was Michael Vargas' Pic of a Zoanthid Eating Nudi that had just nibbled on some Rasta Zoas. That got me interested in what they would look like if they ate other kinds of zoanthids such as Magicians, Utterchaos, Daisy Cutters, etc.
It turns out they turn like this after a few bites to help camouflage themselves in with the Zoanthids (one of the main reasons they're so pesky). There's a few things I'd like to document with this, mainly how long they keep that color of the Zoanthid they're eating. Does it happen overnight? A few days? Does it go away immediately when the Zoa is completely eaten or does it fade away slowly?
There's so many varieties of Zoas that you can find for $10 or less now at stores and of course local hobbyists that'll give stuff away for free. I hope to provide good photographs of the Nudis after they've changed colors, along with some scientific stuff of findings that could be new or just interesting. Let's get this concept tank going!

Equipment |
Tank: Aqueon 5 Gallon
Photography Tank | Aqueon Frameless 2.5 Gallon
Filter | Nano HOB (will find brand name when it arrives)
Heater | Aqueon preset 78F Heater

No Sand, a few pieces of Rock. Lighting is just an old LED I had in storage. I was thinking of having the Main Tank be the photography tank as well, though the frameless will provide a good shooting tank since I can put Black Window Film on the bottom and Back / Sides depending on how I want the background to look.
This setup is super cheap, personally under $50 since a lot of it is coming out of storage. Maybe I can inspire some others to do something similar since the color changing is super cool to me.

Pics coming soon, hopefully I can get the whole thing setup this week!

 

[NanoJHB]

This must be one of the most interesting threads I've seen in a while.

Really looking forward to seeing the results! Love the uniqueness of this idea

 

[Northwest_Scapes_]

This must be one of the most interesting threads I've seen in a while.

Really looking forward to seeing the results! Love the uniqueness of this idea

Thank you! Now the hardest part will be finding them since everyone usually kills them with dip. Perhaps I can ask the LFS tomorrow when I go in for Salt if whenever they find some, just to send them my way haha. Hopefully they or someone local has got them. I'm particularly excited about trying a small frag of Magicians though I heard apparently, they won't touch palys or bigger polyp zoas. Will have to see if that is true. Though the idea of a Red Nudi with speckles of the Blue / Green on the Magicians is intriguing

 

[Acros]

Cool. Following!

 

[Renaissance corals]

Jumping over from the original idea thread. Can't wait to see this in action

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

I'm interested to see how you end up sourcing them.

 

[Northwest_Scapes_]

@ISpeakForTheSeas I saw your quote about how there's studies showing that some Zoa eating nudis prefer only certain zoas, do you have any suggestions on which to try out first? And I'm guessing the zoa eating nudis that show up in the hobby aren't all the same species either since they're pretty hard to ID. I've seen BamBams, Rastas, and I think it might've been Dragon Eyes that were being eaten and the Nudis took on that color.

 

[Northwest_Scapes_]

I'm interested to see how you end up sourcing them.

My hope is that someone local or an LFS can just give them away since they were probably going to be killed anyways

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

@ISpeakForTheSeas I saw your quote about how there's studies showing that some Zoa eating nudis prefer only certain zoas, do you have any suggestions on which to try out first? And I'm guessing the zoa eating nudis that show up in the hobby aren't all the same species either since they're pretty hard to ID. I've seen BamBams, Rastas, and I think it might've been Dragon Eyes that were being eaten and the Nudis took on that color.

Not by their common name, no. By scientific name though, Palythoa caribaeorum, Palythoa mutuki, and Zoanthus sansibaricus are some I'd recommend trying. Unfortunately, the original studies I referenced are some of those that I neglected to file away for future use later (I have quite a few of those from when I was first introduced to the hobby), but these three species are known for their associations with zoanthid eating nudibranch species, and at least P. mutuki has been confirmedly studied and shown to be eaten by a nudibranch species (see the link after this paragraph). Unfortunately, a number of studies only list things like "Zoanthus sp." and "Aeolidiopsis sp."

http://eprints.cmfri.org.in/13834/1/JMBAI_61-1-2019_Joshi%20K%20K_Predatory%20association%20of%20Aeolidiopsis.pdf

Yeah, there are a number of different zoa eating nudibranch species (and they likely all have different preferred zoanthid species to feed on), so I'd be surprised if everyone was getting the same species.

This bottom link - while not necessarily helpful for picking feeder zoas - is related and interesting:

The Sea Slug Forum - Feeding on Palythoa

www.seaslugforum.net

 

[Northwest_Scapes_]

Not by their common name, no. By scientific name though, Palythoa caribaeorum, Palythoa mutuki, and Zoanthus sansibaricus are some I'd recommend trying. Unfortunately, the original studies I referenced are some of those that I neglected to file away for future use later (I have quite a few of those from when I was first introduced to the hobby), but these three species are known for their associations with zoanthid eating nudibranch species, and at least P. mutuki has been confirmedly studied and shown to be eaten by a nudibranch species (see the link after this paragraph). Unfortunately, a number of studies only list things like "Zoanthus sp." and "Aeolidiopsis sp."

http://eprints.cmfri.org.in/13834/1/JMBAI_61-1-2019_Joshi%20K%20K_Predatory%20association%20of%20Aeolidiopsis.pdf

Yeah, there are a number of different zoa eating nudibranch species (and they likely all have different preferred zoanthid species to feed on), so I'd be surprised if everyone was getting the same species.

This bottom link - while not necessarily helpful for picking feeder zoas - is related and interesting:

The Sea Slug Forum - Feeding on Palythoa

www.seaslugforum.net

Thank you so much! This will be really helpful.

On a sad note though, I asked the LFS yesterday and it seems like any chance of getting any from them is low since it's hard to separate them from the Zoa + most already die in the dip anyways. My next chance is hopefully getting them from someone local who happens to find them

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Thank you so much! This will be really helpful.

On a sad note though, I asked the LFS yesterday and it seems like any chance of getting any from them is low since it's hard to separate them from the Zoa + most already die in the dip anyways. My next chance is hopefully getting them from someone local who happens to find them

Happy to help - good luck in your search! It sounds like a fun project.

 

[Northwest_Scapes_]

So unfortunately, the last of the equipment I need to get the tank running was delayed due to snow. I don't have an ETA on when it'll pick back up, the tracking just says "shipment delayed". So as of right now, the tank is on pause, but this does give me a good chance to ask around if anyone has nudis. I hope it'll pick back up again soon but the snow is pretty unpredictable right now

 

[John London]

Happy to help - good luck in your search! It sounds like a fun project.

In my (unfortunately extensive) experience, the ZEN's don't die in the dip, it seems to loosen their grip so they can be basted, or brushed off.
I admire you for coming up with this novel approach, but I'd be more interested in a proper study of the life cycle. There seems to be no solid information that would help one determine an optimal dip cycle. Or, as a desperate last measure, fallow period if I decided to give up on my current crop of Zoas.