Spanish Shawl

[mcanavan69]

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/48197shawl18_channel2.jpg
Yesterday morning before the lights came on I happend to notice a small nudi crawling on the glass. I grabbed the flashlight and took a closer look. It was about 3/4" long, light blue with a dark blue tail and horns. It also had a bunch of yellow "fingers" on its back. I told my wife and she was amazed. She just got back from a dive trip to Australia. She mentioned that she had got a couple of good pics of nudi's on her trip but they didnt look like this one. Upon doing some research I found out it looked like the Spanish Shawl. It is not that dark of a blue/purple, but it has the same body and features. I would like to keep this nudi alive as long as possible. If you have any info I would really apprectiate it.
Thanks
Mark

This is the only picture I could find that looks like the nudi in my tank.

[illcssd]

well, i have no idea about it, but it is beutiful

[PUGroyale]

Is that the same or different from the Spanish Dancer Nudi? I think from the pics ive seen, the dancer is smooth backed. Same thing happened to me, i flipped on the lights and thought half my xenia was sloughing off...I was thinking Xenia doesnt split by just up and crawling off?!? does it??? course not...it was an inch long white with like leafthings on its back nudi...very cool

[TippyToeX]

Common name is a Spanish Shawl.

It is a Flabellina iodinea (http://www.seaslugforum.net/flabiodi.htm)

Flabellina iodinea preys selectively on the orange polyps of the athecate hydroid Eudendrium ramosum (Engel, 1976; McDonald & Nybakken, 1978; personal observations). McBeth (1972) showed that the purple pigment in the body of F. iodinea, the orange color in its cerata, and the scarlet red in its rhinophores are all derived from a single carotenoid pigment, astaxanthin, obtained from its hydroid prey. In the aeolid, this pigment occurs in three slightly different states (free, esterified, and conjugated with a protein), resulting in the three distinct color

Difficult to impossible to keep for the above reason IMO

[mcanavan69]

So I guess there is no keeping it alive? Why is this little guy just now showing up? I have not added anything new to the tank in about 2 months.