the gorgeous enemy - jaw dropping zoanthid eating nudi

[whodah]

so i asked my buddy weatherson to take some close ups of some nudis next time he had a chance.

weatherson is GREAT at photos... if you havn't heard of his '240G inwall' project, yer in for a treat!

at any rate, man, did he deliver.

these are up on zoaid.com - i started a 'predator' gallery. gotta keep yer friends close and enemies closer, eh?

weatherson's 240 inwall project: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=553571

zoaid's predator gallery: http://www.zoaid.com/gallery2/v/zoanthid_predators/

and best for last, the incredible nudi shots. it's a where's waldo scenario on the first pic!


http://www.zoaid.com/gallery2/d/449-2/nudi1.jpg

http://www.zoaid.com/gallery2/d/453-2/nudi2.jpg

http://www.zoaid.com/gallery2/d/456-2/nudi3.jpg

[whodah]

meant to add: it once again showcases how these little hosers blend in w/ their surroundings to the extreme level!

[rhoodhouse]

This is great whodah thanks

[Reef Junkie]

Jeremy,
You've done it again! good work man.;)
Bill

[Dwarfpufferfish]

Little B#$%ards

[whodah]

rhoodhouse: yer welcome, glad ya like it!

Reef Junkie: ty sir! of course the credit goes to weatherson :D

Dwarfpufferfish: indeed!

[sttaylor]

How the hell are you supposed to see that unless it is fleeing the scene in a fresh water dip?

Scott

[SuperFishy]

squish squash!

[lil_fishey]

im gunna agree with Dwarfpufferfish

[Daemonfly]

Originally posted by sttaylor
How the hell are you supposed to see that unless it is fleeing the scene in a fresh water dip?

Scott

Thats the whole point of camouflage! :D

[whodah]

for those having a hard time 'seeing' it, weatherson added some yellow circles highlighting them for our local club. so i added those to zoaid.com too:

http://www.zoaid.com/gallery2/v/zoanthid_predators/nudibranch/metalicorangenudi/

[floridareefs]

whodah--that is great work! thanks

[PUGroyale]

That's amazing how they mimic the zoanthid polyps... great Pics :thumbsup: Can they change coloration as well? Say to match green zoa skirts?

[Sugar Magnolia]

Originally posted by SuperFishy
squish squash!
No, no...we don't squish the little bastards. We flush them. ;) Squishing is a very bad idea.

Thanks for sharing those pics!

[Jovreefer]

I'm tagging along with PU ... I've seen 2 pics of them on orange skirt zoa's now...no other colors yet...

They really are pretty...I'd get a whole bunch if they did not eat the zoas. amazing pics!

[skyedolphan]

I agree when I had a few of them last year they always seemed to be on the red and orange zoas more often than elsewhere didnt stop everyrock in my tank from getting a dip though :)

[whodah]

kind of an interesting shot - worthy of a bump!

weatherson took these two shots of a Juvenile Nudi.

note it's camoflauge coloration **already**!

http://www.zoaid.com/gallery2/d/597-2/638_nudi-big.jpg

http://www.zoaid.com/gallery2/d/601-2/639_nudi.jpg

[wetWolger]

wow nice pics....well done, thanks

[whodah]

as much as i hate bumping this thread...

;) :P

weatherson keeps on outdoing himself!! impossible you say? well, be your own judge! :D

quoted w/ his permission, pics/story added to ZoaID.com w/ his permission:


weatherson said:
OK... found these two jokers tonight and due to their sheer size, decided a photo shoot was in order. ;)

http://www.weatherson.com/photos/644_nudi-1.jpg

http://www.weatherson.com/photos/645_nudi-2.jpg

And here's a series of shots of a pretty interesting situation. I'd swirled the water around to get them in a better position. The larger of the two ended up in a bottom up position. Then, the smaller guy comes over to him and seemingly pushes on the flipped guy. This guy finally rights himself and the helper immediately turns and heads off away from the now righted guy. I swear it looked as though he helped him out and then moved on once things were corrected. Bizarre.

http://www.weatherson.com/photos/646_nudi-3.jpg

http://www.weatherson.com/photos/647_nudi-4.jpg

http://www.weatherson.com/photos/648_nudi-5.jpg

http://www.weatherson.com/photos/649_nudi-6.jpg

Joseph

[whodah]

heh, one of the replies on our club site said:

oh great... they have medics!!!

[Snakebyt]

here are a few more nudi pics. Not the best pics i have taken, but I was in a hurry to snap a few pics and get them buggers out of there.

green nudi on green zoas
http://www.snakebyt.com/greennudi.jpg

here is a green nudi on non-green zoas
http://www.snakebyt.com/nudi1a.jpg

and here is yet another..
http://www.snakebyt.com/nudi1b.jpg

[Snakebyt]

here are a couple that i just took.. after looking at this thread i went over to look at the tank, and low and behold.. what did i find.....

http://www.snakebyt.com/nudi1c.jpg

http://www.snakebyt.com/nudi1d.jpg

[Snakebyt]

here is a pic of some nudi eggs, its the white spiral thing, and if you look above the eggsack, there is a nudi, probably the same one that laid them.

http://www.snakebyt.com/nudieggs.jpg

[whodah]

wow - great shots Snakebyt! as in the past, may i have permission to use these on ZoaID.com too?

almost as many nudi's on there as zoas! LOL! or... cry...

[Snakebyt]

Sure, use them as needed...
I hope in the near future i can stop taking nudi pics :)

[mille239]

enough great pics to publish a nudi magazine LOL!!!!

[whodah]

http://www.whodah.com/smilies/icon_lmao.gif

now that's funny!

[whodah]

couple more shots from weatherson posted w/ permission (thx weatherson!):

http://www.zoaid.com/gallery2/d/1015-2/667_nudi.jpg

and... closer....

http://www.zoaid.com/gallery2/d/1018-2/668_nudi_close.jpg

[whodah]

weatherson (http://www.weatherson.com) caught some great shots of pre-nudis... the eggs!

they were interesting to me, thought they'd be interesting to you!

thx joe!!

http://www.zoaid.com/gallery2/d/1415-2/694_nudi_eggs.jpg

http://www.zoaid.com/gallery2/d/1419-2/695_nudi_eggs2.jpg

[ficklefins]

Whodah.

What do you think these nudis are actually feeding on? Their camo seems almost a bit too close to the actual zoa color. It is almost like they are feeding off of the zoas zooxanthellae.

[whodah]

notta clue... :(

[wenright]

Amazing masters of camouflage, death to them all.

[ancistrus]

Some nudis have the ability to chew on the polyps / symbiotic algae etc of their prey and then transfer it to the tentacles on their backs where it continues to live giving the almost perfect comouflage in those excellent pics. If they eat anemones or other stinging corals the anemones poisonous nemocysts are transferred to the nudi's tentacles giving it firepower it doesn't normally have.

Brian

[whodah]

wow - i want a PPE nudi!!!

[Mr. Ugly]

Uh, oh... named nudis! Soon to be on Ebay :)

So who's PPE are you gonna feed to the nudi? :)

[Mikeyjer]

I HATE these suckers!!! I just got done killing over a 100 of'em from my tank. I hope I don't see those suckers anymore!!! At first I thought, OH what a pretty bright orange little slug, then I found it eating the zoo polyp, but it laid eggs already. Down the drain they go!!!! My zoos are MUCH happier now without those suckers munching them down to nothing.

[NewBeReef627]

I added a six line wrasse to my tank and nudis no more. He ate all and have been nudi free for 3 months.

Lori