Breeding Journal DataSheet For Eylsia diomedia
General Species: Elysia dimomedia
Social Structure: solitary, simultaneous hermaphrodites
Size of Individuals: hard to say, they can rapidly change size. Basically, 2"
Age of Individuals: unknown, but suspected to not have a very long lifespan (i.e. easily could be less than 1 year old)
Date added to Tank: N/A - I've kept multiple pairs of this species over the past few years, hence the listing of multiple tank setups. I'll use my more recent attempt at rearing as the basis for the report however (that was in the 6 gallon)
Broodstock Tank Details Size of Tank: 24 gallon nanocube / 6 gallon nanoctube
Substrate Details: Live sand
Filtration Details: stock nanocube filtration + remora C skimmer / stock filtration
Water Changes: 25% weekly
Water Temperature: around 80F / 82 F
Lighting: 150 watt metal halide / twin upgraded PCs
Lighting Cycle: 12 hours on
Other Tank Inhabitants: too many to mention
Broodstock Feeding Details Food Types: Bryopsis is the only algae I have seen these sea slugs truly chow down on. They are EXCELLENT for control of the real Bryopsis (which I actually inadvertently introduced to my tank because I LOVED the feathery look of the individual algae fronds at the time!)
Feeding Schedule: N/A
Spawning Details Date of First Spawn: Oct 13th, 2007 for my second attempt
Spawn Time of Day: n/a
Dates of Consecutive Spawns: simply put, they were frequent.
CourtShip Details: N/A - the slugs were not observed actually mating
Egg Size: extremely small, in a ribbon
Egg Color: white
Egg Count: hundreds if not thousands
Hatch Details Hatch Date: The hatch date I took pictures on was November 15th, did not record the spawn date for that hatch.
Hatch Time of Day: more or less overnight..no set time that I ever noticed
# Days after Spawn: Most seemed to hatch in about 4-5 days
Larve Description: very tiny, like rotifers, but clearly mollusk veligers with a whorling shell.
Larval Tank Details Temperature: 70's
Size of Larval Tank: 2L
Substrate Details: none
Other Tank Decor: none
Filtration Details: none
Lighting: ambient
Lighting Cycle: general day night
Water Changes: none
Larval Feeding Details Food Types: Live Phyto (Nanno, Tet, possibly some T-Iso, and possibly Rhodomas lens at one point)
Feeding Schedule: constant
Metamorphosis/Settlement Date of Settlement Start:
Days after Hatch:
Date of Settlement End:
Description of Fry:
Grow-Out Tank Details Temperature:
Size of Grow-Out Tank:
Substrate Details:
Other Tank Decor:
Filtration Details:
Lighting:
Lighting Cycle:
Water Changes:
Size at Transfer:
Age at Transfer
Grow-Out Feeding Details Food Types:
Feeding Schedule:
Additional Information Miscellaneous Information:
Admittedly, I did not push extremely hard to rear these...I did try multiple rearing attempts in 2L bottles with live phyto but generally, those would all fail in a couple days.
I originally documented my work with this species in several areas. I should note that while there are a few reports of successful captive reproduction in related species, I have yet to see any convincing proof of this...all the reports suggest random successes, which only makes me wonder why I never saw such successes, and that leads me to believe that there could be more of a hitchhiker phenomenon going on than actual captive reproductive success. Hard to say. Here's those threads:
My threads http://www.reefcentral.co...s=&threadid=838301 http://www.marinebreeder....c.php?f=195&t=1363 http://projectdibs.com/fo.ms/showthread.php?t=1416 Some related threads / articles: http://www.breedersregist...4/SolarPoweredSlug.htm http://archive.reefcentra...howthread.php?t=845258 http://www.reefcentral.co...owthread.php?t=1777681 - very recent (January 2010).
Pictures:
IN the SPS tank in 2006: 
Spawning in 2006 
Spawning in late 2007 in the 6 gallon nanocube 
Newly Hatched, 10X 
Newly Hatched, 60X 
<message edited by mPedersen on Friday, February 5, 2010 3:38 PM>