Nudibranch Glowing from Within

 This picture of a beautiful pink and orange laced nudibranch is in honor of us gearing up for another muck diving, nudibranch hunting mission to Indonesia this summer. Expect many more pics of colorful and bizarre sea creatures from the biodiversity golden triangle.

Desirable Nudibranch

A desirable nudibranch clings to a dangling piece of algae, holding on in the surgey waters off western Oahu. I have never seen this nudibranch on Maui but encounter if quite often at Electric Beach dive site on Oahu. It is easy to see why it garnered the name "desirable".

The 'Not So' Gloomy Nudibranch (Tambja morosa)

  They call this the 'gloomy nudibranch'! Doesn't look so gloomy to me. This hard to find sea slug has the deepest royal blue I have ever seen in an animal. The blue markings are different from slug to slug but the blue vizor over the 'eyes' is a pretty common feature. If you catch it in the right light the dark black features meld into a green tint especially towards the exposed gills.

  You will have to be pretty lucky to find this nudibranch in Hawaii, but you can see different color variations elsewhere in the Indo-Pacific.

  Check out my sea slug gallery at: www.daimarsphotos.com

Spanish Dancer Nudibranch Portrait

A spanish dancer nudibranch (Hexabranchus sanguineus), gracefully undulates through the nighttime water off one of Maui's coastal reefs. This nudibranch has two very different modes of locomotion: crawling and swimming. When it crawls, the wide edges of the mantle are rolled up close to the body. When the animal swims however, the red edges unfurl, and are whirled through the water in a spectacular undulating motion, propelling the animal forwards.

Trembling Nudibranch

Trembling Nudibranch, Chromodoris vibrata

This attractive nudibranch is named after the way its gills continually tremble and vibrate. You can see the exposed gills as a dark purple fringed circle towards the back of the nudibranch. The rhinophores are dark blue and look almost like ears towards the head of the animal.

Found in Japan, Marshall Islands, and the Hawaiian Islands.