Picture of the Week, Sympodium Eating Nudibranch

Photo Credit: Kevin Holden

For this week’s AquaNerd Picture of the Week, we wanted to stray away from the typical aquarium life and highlight a pest. Pictured above is a nudibranch hitch hiker that feeds on the rare and beautiful Sympodium coral. Like most nudis, this small slug blends right into the coral on which it feeds. This makes the nudi very difficult to spot, and they often go unnoticed in a coral until bite marks can and dead polyps be seen by the hobbyist. The best way to get rid of these “worms” is to dip all incoming corals in an iodine solution, which will kill most hitch hikers without damaging the coral.

Image courtesy of our friends at Neptune’s Reef.