Nudibranch in Rajah Ampat

Edi, the owner of the Pindito, had never seen anything like this in his 12 years in Rajah Ampat. Neither had Max Ammer...

Anyone here seen it before?

Yes, down in Melissa's Garden about 6 years ago. It's off video and I tried to id it on slug site but since the macro capability of the VX1k wasn't that great, the frame grab wasn't all that good. Do you have a top view shot of it? I think the cerata obscures the gills a bit.

Unfortunately, I wasn't aware that it was a rare nudi, so I only snapped that one shot of it. But it is extremely high resolution. When I get back to California, I'll dig up the RAW file and rip out a close-up of the gill area.

Yeah it's always the case. There were 2 mimic octopus popping up and doing their thing the last trip in Maumere. 4 divers who were new to Indo saw them and thought it was no big deal! I got there at the end of the show.

I looked at Neville Coleman's 1001 nudibranchs and couldn't find it. There are 2 more books which I'll try but your best bet would be the slug site.

I sent a message in to the slug site with a photo, so we'll see what they say.

We had a wunderpus at the mandarinfish site, which was really exciting. I took some pictures of it -- not the most exciting photos, but it was definitely exciting to see. And when it was done with us, it disappeared into the rubble and was just gone. Very effective at escape.

Hi Eric -- It's Ceratosoma alleni, previously found only in 2 areas of the Philippines. Luzon and ? I don't remember exactly but I'm pretty sure I saw it on Mike Miller's branch site <www.slugsite.us> Did you find any cool worms this trip?

Cheers, leslie

Looks like it was shot at Catalina Island in California

Luzon and Mindanao. The reference is here:

http://slugsite.us/bow/nudiwkps/nudiwk20.html

Sorry Eric, you don't get ceratosoma erici

Hi Eric,

These are in the Ceratosoma family, Ceratosoma allenii specifically according to "Coral Reef Animals of the Pacific". I have seen them in the Philippines for the last few years. Very interesting nudi.

Do you have any more info as to where, when, how deep, water temp, date, animal size etc. for this find? This is such a rare species that very little is known about it, including its natural range. You could contribute to the knowledge base on this species by posting a message and photo to the Sea Slug Forum, which is the universal repository for this kind of info:

http://www.seaslugforum.net

BTW, there is also a full size video of this amazing critter at:

http://slugsite.tierranet.com/mdm_pv.htm

-Rayh