I now know how stupid I was, but.

[rulesmith]

I bought a purple nudibranch at a lfs, I then went home and read up on them, to find to my horror, that I made a bad mistake that most likely will result in the death of this poor guy, and I just gave the lfs incentive to buy more of them, cause there are always dump people like me.

The question is this though, is there any way to save him? Can I buy the sponge or anything else that he can eat? I have him in a 55 tank right now by himself, I have a 360gal tank, but it is newer, and I figured less likely to have any food for him in there, does anyone have any idea on how I can save him? I do not want to take him back, cause he will just die there. The local fish store I got him from is not local, either, it is an hour away.

Thanks for any help.

[Sk8r]

I believe there is one variety of frozen food that includes chopped sponge---it may be for angels.

Anyone?

[rulesmith]

has anyone heard of any food that these guys can eat, or know what kind of sponge they eat, and where I can buy them?

[Freed]

LFS' sell these things knowing full well it will die in your tank. They ought to be flogged.

[romunov]

There's really no way for you to identify the sponge, even if you knew which species to get.

[Scuba_Dave]

Their food supply is very specific
In almost all cases they perish in less then 8 weeks

[rulesmith]

There really is something wrong with selling these guys, when there is nothing you can do. It seems really inhumane to let something starve to death. I am going to get some random sponges and see if I have any luck, but I pretty much no it is a lost cause. Well, I hope somebody reads this and learns from my mistake.

[romunov]

As you might have guessed, sponges fall into the same category as these snails. Best left to die at the LFS - at least they'll think twice before buying another shipment of them.

[boomsticks]

They eat Blue Sponges.

[venwu225]

what are blue sponges? lots of sponges carry blue pigments, any idea what the latin name is?

[gussy]

Don't believe it...hard enough to tell which "purple" nudi you have let alone they eat "blue" sponge.

[romunov]

Do some reading on sponges and why it's almost impossible for hobbyists to identify them:
Sponges (http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/april2004/invert.htm)
How to ID a sponge and why should you just call it what it is - a sponge (http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-07/rs/index.htm)
Sponges: A Bunch of Holes Held Together by Some Cells (http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-06/rs/index.htm)
Sponges - pump-filter modules through space and time (http://web.archive.org/web/20020806012027/http://www.animalnetwork.com/fish2/aqfm/1998/jan/wb/default.asp)
Some Truths about Sponges (http://web.archive.org/web/20020806011533/http://www.animalnetwork.com/fish2/aqfm/1998/feb/wb/default.asp)

These snails also have short life-spans.