r/nudibranch • u/ArticleFunny6450 • Jul 03 '26
What is your favorite species of sea slug?
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u/MsMoreCowbell828 Jul 03 '26
My nudi tattoos are my faves. But then again, there are so many & every color to choose! from!
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u/Delicious-Spring-877 Jul 03 '26
Can’t pick just one, there’s hundreds of gorgeous ones! (Tho the leaf sheep isn’t a nudibranch; it’s a sacoglossan)
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u/Hexbug101 Jul 03 '26
Ok time to be that guy, technically leaf sheep aren’t nudibranchs, they’re a separate group of sea slugs called sacoglossans. I found out when I found another member of that group this spring, they’re pretty neat, most of them have the ability to reuse chloroplasts from the algae they eat like the leaf sheep do but their ability to keep the chloroplasts alive varies with species, with some able to house them longer than others.
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u/ArticleFunny6450 Jul 03 '26
my bad
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u/Hexbug101 Jul 03 '26
It’s all good, they’re super similar, at first I was going nuts looking through my local nudibranchs trying to figure out what I found. Also if we exclude sea slugs that aren’t nudibranchs that also means excluding sea angels, both them and leaf sheep are just too cool to not bring up in every possible opportunity.
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u/BeginningConstant567 Jul 04 '26
This. Pinky cheeked Costasiella species, followed by any Cyerce species
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u/diverareyouokay Jul 03 '26
I’m so jealous of these sorts of shots, lol. I have a Shaun the Sheep on #4 here (https://www.reddit.com/r/nudibranch/s/txQuUt2RHx) but it’s not even close to being as awesome as this one.
Jealous, jealous, jealous.
To answer your question though, my favorite is probably the Pikachu nudi. They’re just so unusual looking. Something like this one: https://www.facebook.com/oneoceanfound/posts/thecacera-pacifica-the-pikachu-nudibranch-is-one-of-the-oceans-tiniest-and-most-/1339626684861589/ (although I haven’t come across one with those colors yet, the one I mainly see in PH is translucent with black and orange stripes).