slug id

[manderx]

the LFS called me in to see if i knew anything about a hitchhiker they found.
my first thought was elephant slug (i have one in my nano) but it has no shell inside it.
they said when it was relaxed it stuck out 2 eye stalks.
it's body is pretty thin all the way across, and it puts out a nasty sticky slime unlike any snail or nudi i've ever seen.
that's a quarter in the middle picture.


http://foresters-inc.com/mander/underwater.jpg http://foresters-inc.com/mander/withquarter.jpg http://foresters-inc.com/mander/upsidedown.jpg

[Mike_Noren]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by manderx
the LFS called me in to see if i knew anything about a hitchhiker they found.
my first thought was elephant slug (i have one in my nano) but it has no shell inside it.
they said when it was relaxed it stuck out 2 eye stalks.
it's body is pretty thin all the way across, and it puts out a nasty sticky slime unlike any snail or nudi i've ever seen.
that's a quarter in the middle picture.

It's a polyclad flatworm, not a snail at all. The two 'eye stalks' were tentacles - the eyes will be numerous small black dots scattered in fields in the anterior of the worm. The lighter branched structure visible inside the worm is its gut; the shape of the gut is what's given this order it's name - Polycladida means 'with many branches'.

I'm not terribly good with polyclads - it's just one of those groups I run in to but have never taken much interest in - so I don't recognize the species, but my guess is that this is yet another member of the very large family Pseudoceratidae. I don't know why, but most large flatworms reported from aquaria seem to be of that family. Possibly it's just that they're among the largest and most colorful.

As to whether it's safe... No, probably not. It's a predator, but of what I do not know; quite possibly something one would rather it didn't, such as snails, clams, anemones or corals. Pretty and interesting as it is, and even though I don't know the exact species, I doubt this guy is suitable for a reef tank.

Your best bet for an ID is to go to:
http://www.rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de/~bu6/
and browse the posted images (all images are of polyclads, and most are of pseudoceratids). If you can't find a match, mail a copy of the images to the owner of the site, Wolfgang Seifahrt - he's a specialist on this group, whereas I most definitely am not.

He may also be able to tell you what, exactly, this species eats. There is a (very small) chance it eats something one would like it to eat.

[rshimek]

Hi,

Mike [thanks] for the identification and description.

Manderx,

Good shots of a rather nice polyclad! :D Actual identification of these things to species is quite difficult, particularly if you don't know the region of origin, but you certainly might be able get to genus by checking out the link.