About the ecology of nudibranchs
April 2, 2000
From: Phanor Montoya
dear Bill,
I would like to know if nudibranchs have a diel pattern, like migrations to deeper waters at night or any similar behavior. Also, is there a way to do a mark/recapture study with them?
Phanor Montoya
phamont@eudoramail,com
Montoya, P., 2000 (Apr 2) About the ecology of nudibranchs. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/2173Dear Phanor,
If you use the SEARCH button and search for diurnal you will get some information on some sea hares and a chromodorid. I am sure many tropical nudibranchs hide during the day, emerging only at night, apparently as a predator avoidance measure. In act phylldiids, with very distasteful mantle scretions, are often the only commonly seen nudibranchs on show during the day in the tropics.
Perhaps someone can suggest some references. The only one I can suggest on diurnal rhythms is:
•Johnson, S. (1989): Temporal patterns of nudibranch mollusk activity on a subtidal Hawaiian reef. The Veliger 32(1): 1-7.
Mark & recapture studies usually means tagging. Tagging Sea Slugs is quite difficult as they can quite quickly move the tag to the edge of their parapodia or mantle edge and discard the tag. There is a paper on using tattoo ink, which I list below, and I am sure I have read of someone successfully freeze-branding slugs.
•Kiest,K (1990): Tattoo ink as a tag for nudibranchs. The Veliger 33(4, 1 October), 416.
If anyone has references on either topic I would be grateful for them. Apart from helping Phanor, it would be good to set up reference pages for both topics.
Bill Rudman.
Rudman, W.B., 2000 (Apr 2). Comment on About the ecology of nudibranchs by Phanor Montoya. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/2173Related messages
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