Nudibranch Lovers

[Tjack]

Hey Tigerman, good luck finding your free swimming Spanish Dancer. Here is a video of one from youtube


[video=youtube;V6H01cUSpfQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6H01cUSpfQ[/video]

It's always good to have a dive objective, I like to have a target species for each dive trip, my last trip was to find Angel Sharks off SoCal and bang there were two on our first dive.

Sometimes the target species don't cooperate though, Oceanic White-tip sharks have eluded me so far, stumped at Elfenstone, Red Sea and Socorro, Mexico.

My next trip objective will be to find Nudis other than the common Lettuce Sea Slug off Curacao. IMHO there are not many species of Nudi in the Caribbean. Of the 32 species listed in the Paul Humann 'Reef Creature' guide 4 are only found in Florida. The Atlantic coast of Florida with the Gulf Stream is particularly rich with life compared to the placid waters of the Caribbean.

Scuba Jenny, my idea with the macro lenses would be to stack em, seal em with super glue and thread em into the housing port. At under $20 this might be a budget option. Threaded into the lens itself inside the housing would require a dedicated macro dive, wonder if that would work?

 

[WetLens]

Chelidonura hirundinina

Not a Nudibranch in the true sense, but a beautiful sea slug none the less...


First photo was taken off Conception Island in the Bahamas - slug is ~10mm. Second photo was taken at Blue Heron Bridge in Florida - both slugs are ~ 20mm in length.

 

[Tjack]

Nice Headshield Slug there wetlens, truly tiny.

Chelidonura hirundinina is a species of small and colorful aglajid sea slug, a shell-less opisthobranch gastropod mollusk in the family Aglajidae.^[1]


Despite its colorful appearance, this is not a species of nudibranch; it is a cephalaspidean, a headshield slug. This is a tropical species which lives in the western Indo-Pacific, and also in the Caribbean Sea.

The two rather long "tails" at the end of the animal are characteristic of the genus Chelidonura.They have also well-developed sensory cilia on the anterior edge of the head which are used to find the prey.

The specific epithet hirundinina is Latin, meaning "little swallow", in reference to this swallow-tailed appearance.

The headshield slug has a characteristic broadening at the head which is used to plow beneath sand. The slugs live just underneath sand and use their well-developed sensory structures to detect prey above.

Other interesting Opisthobranchia are the Sidegills and Bubbleshells, gee we could even include Flatworms?

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

That headshield slug can be really popular at the bridge. The first time I saw one, I ended up seeing a hundred that day.

 

[MrMagica]

Has anyone ever seen a giant nudi? I'm not sure of the ID but I saw one at least half a meter long in Borneo. I never realised they could get that big. Got a poor photo of it!

 

[Tigerman]

Has anyone ever seen a giant nudi? I'm not sure of the ID but I saw one at least half a meter long in Borneo. I never realised they could get that big. Got a poor photo of it!

If its brigt red and about half a meter long it is infact the spanish dancer

 

[tracydr]

Hey Tigerman, good luck finding your free swimming Spanish Dancer. Here is a video of one from youtube


[video=youtube;V6H01cUSpfQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6H01cUSpfQ[/video]

It's always good to have a dive objective, I like to have a target species for each dive trip, my last trip was to find Angel Sharks off SoCal and bang there were two on our first dive.

Sometimes the target species don't cooperate though, Oceanic White-tip sharks have eluded me so far, stumped at Elfenstone, Red Sea and Socorro, Mexico.

My next trip objective will be to find Nudis other than the common Lettuce Sea Slug off Curacao. IMHO there are not many species of Nudi in the Caribbean. Of the 32 species listed in the Paul Humann 'Reef Creature' guide 4 are only found in Florida. The Atlantic coast of Florida with the Gulf Stream is particularly rich with life compared to the placid waters of the Caribbean.

Scuba Jenny, my idea with the macro lenses would be to stack em, seal em with super glue and thread em into the housing port. At under $20 this might be a budget option. Threaded into the lens itself inside the housing would require a dedicated macro dive, wonder if that would work?

I snorkeled with an OWT shark off the coast of Kona while on one of my first dive trips. It was amazing. I do have a video somewhere but its old fashioned VCR and I don't know how to upload it.
Saw lots of the Spanish Dancers in Africa. They were very cool. Now I want to see molas and whales underwater.

 

[Tjack]

A 20" bright red free swimming Dorid might freak me right out! I had no idea the Spanish Dancer was such a monster.

Pemba and Zanzibar are top of my list for exotic dive destinations tracydr.

Mr Magic, post the picture and we can try and ID it?

 

[Roko]

Took this one yesterday, just for you fellow Nudibranch Lovers!

Perhaps not one of the flashiest of species, or most exciting of pictures, but I don't think this species has been posted yet. A Yellow-Rimmed Nudibranch:



And another species I've posted before, but spotted again yesterday, a White and Yellow Tipped Nudi:



Both at Whitecliff park outside Vancovuer, BC, near the day-marker.

The highlight of the dive wasn't actually Nudis, but rather a small Octo out in the open!. The lowlight was a catastrophic flood in my drysuit arm ending the dive at an hour with plenty of backgas left in my doubles...

 

[Tjack]

Took this one yesterday, just for you fellow Nudibranch Lovers!

The highlight of the dive wasn't actually Nudis, but rather a small Octo out in the open!. The lowlight was a catastrophic flood in my drysuit arm ending the dive at an hour with plenty of backgas left in my doubles...

Aw shucks, just for us. Thanks Roko, leaky wrist seals?

Here is another Yellow-rimmed Nudi (Cadlina luteomarginata) This one is from Catalina Island, SoCal. I was totally psyched to find it at the end of a 5 day live aboard trip as it was a new species for me.



Has anyone seen the Atlantic coast variant Cadlina luteomarginat ?