Two new (to me) animals?

[Puffer Fish]

Nice work...had guessed it was a Dendrodoris but could not find an image on Nudipixel that matched.

Odd, not only has it never been reported in the northern gulf, but:

1. It seems to be fairly rare.

2. All these here look the same (I've seen 5 so far)..which makes sense they all came from the same area... but I wonder where that area actually is - clearly not where divers go.

3. Color is fairly different from the few images I could find, and all had the eye stalks pulled in...deep water animal? Not used to light?

Thanks for the great detective work.

Took me a bit to locate ID, but looks like the nudi is Dendrodoris warta. Only known from south-eastern USA, and seems to be uncommon. Have a look at the info found on The Sea Slug forum if you like. Since there are currently no photos of this species on Nudipixel it might be worth submitting a photo there for people to reference in the future.

As to how they got there, not sure but I might venture a guess. Some nudis are capable of laying thousands or millions of eggs at a time, which hatch into floating or swimming larvae. Once they find a home, the larvae probably develop fairly quickly. It would not be difficult to imagine a large population appearing quickly if conditions are in their favor.

Nice find!

 

[Puffer Fish]

It is on nudipixel The Sea Slug Forum - Dendrodoris warta my opistobranch friend identified it in about 30 secs

Thanks also, understand it is one of the really rare species (well, up until now...anyone want a large container of them?).

 

[Kupu]

For the cowrie, I lean towards spotted cyphoma (Cyphoma macgintyi) also. The stripe pattern on the foot is distinctive, and the color could be influenced as result of the food source as can happen with other gastropods. I do see a few other pictures online that show the same color variation.

I found the following regarding the range of Cyphoma macgintyi.

Distribution: USA: North Carolina, Florida: East Florida, West Florida, Florida Keys; USA: Texas; Mexico: Cayo Arcas, Campeche, Alacran Reef; Bermuda, Cuba: North Havana Province, North Matanzas; Cayman Islands: Grand Cayman Island; Puerto Rico; Virgin Islands: St. Croix

 

[Searcaigh]

Just take lots more photos and submit to Nudipixel, Nathalie would like to see more details if possible. make all my recent finds seem totally minuscule in comparison.

 

[BHB ScubaTroll]

You are looking at the gills on the large one, and the front of the small one...the small one is around 3 inches:

When I saw this one it reminded me of the Warty Side-Gill Sea Slug. I looked up some warty sea slugs and found a close match... I think this one is of the class

Dendrodoris warta

The Sea Slug Forum - Dendrodoris warta

The Sea Slug Forum - Dendrodoris warta

I don't know what the superfamily would be, but it certainly has many traits of the warty sea slug

 

[Kupu]

deleted...

 

[Puffer Fish]

Just take lots more photos and submit to Nudipixel, Nathalie would like to see more details if possible. make all my recent finds seem totally minuscule in comparison.

I have lots more of those two and another one.

From all the images I can find, the coloration of our group here is unique to it.

Also, all of them are out but appear to be either sleeping or hiding from the light...which does not seem to be normal for the ones that others have found.

My guess is that these are deep water adults that have been pulled up by the recent inversion event (our water temps went from the low 50 to upper 60's is a couple of weeks.. and are now stuck at the 68 F... would guess we had a large inversion effect happen and pulled a bunch of these guys up. They are very hard to miss, and the only small one we have seen is the one in the photo here, all the others are at least 5 inches or more long.

If you disturb them (ie, pick up), they will not not raise their eye stalks, just crawl away to the nearest shade....and at 90 ft, it is pretty dark even in the middle of the day.

Pull out a deer cowrie, by comparison, from it's day hiding place and it will come completely out and go find a place to hide again.

 

[Puffer Fish]

For the cowrie, I lean towards spotted cyphoma (Cyphoma macgintyi) also. The stripe pattern on the foot is distinctive, and the color could be influenced as result of the food source as can happen with other gastropods. I do see a few other pictures online that show the same color variation.

I found the following regarding the range of Cyphoma macgintyi.

Distribution: USA: North Carolina, Florida: East Florida, West Florida, Florida Keys; USA: Texas; Mexico: Cayo Arcas, Campeche, Alacran Reef; Bermuda, Cuba: North Havana Province, North Matanzas; Cayman Islands: Grand Cayman Island; Puerto Rico; Virgin Islands: St. Croix

I would sure agree with the pattern. Just not seen any examples with a shell shape like that.

Regarding distribution of them.. This is the coldest area of the gulf of mexico.. our bottom water temperatures typically get down in the 45 - 50 degree F range. So while some tropical and sub tropical fish do make it here from time to time, most either have to migrate or die. Subtropical snalls don't usually migrate well....which is why we don't have flamingo tongues here (which show the same distribution). 100 miles down the coast is a very different environment.

What we do see is upwelling dragging deep water species up...I have pictures of short bigeye's and varigated eels in under 100 ft of water (both are very deep water species).

 

[Puffer Fish]

Here is a bit closer on the cowie:

I would have to agree with the spotted Cyphoma...even though the shell is not the right shape.

 

[Searcaigh]

If you disturb them (ie, pick up), they will not not raise their eye stalks, just crawl away to the nearest shade....and at 90 ft, it is pretty dark even in the middle of the day.

Eye stalks? I assume you are referring to the rhinophores, the two sensory organs that stick up on most sea slugs.

Not 100% sure on this species but nudibranchs eyes are very primitive sensing only light from dark IIRC and are located on the body not on the rhinophores.