Feeding in Ceratosoma brevicaudatum

October 20, 2000
From: Des Paroz

Hi Bill

Yesterday (15 October), my girlfriend and I were diving at Bushrangers Bay, Bass Point, and I saw what I initially mistook as a sponge, but on closer inspection realised it to be a large (approx 12cm) nudibranch. Depth was about 1.5m only.

Checking a couple of reference books later, I identified this to have been a C. brevicaudatum, a species I've not seen before. It was quite distinct though - cerise coloured body with blue spots down the centre of the body (with yellow rings around the spots), and darker, purple spots along the edge of the body. The gills and rhinopores were of a slightly lighter colouration than the rest of the body, with whitish "specs".

Looking at your page on C. brevicaudatum this morning, I noticed discussion about what this nudi feasts on. The one we saw was most definitely munching away on green sea grass, which was growing on the shallow, sandy bottom.

A wader had just swum past when we noticed it, and its gills were initially retracted, but opened up within a minute or so. Didn't have the camera with me, isn't it always the way?

Best regards
Des

des@paroz.com

Paroz, D., 2000 (Oct 20) Feeding in Ceratosoma brevicaudatum. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/3186

Dear Des,
A very puzzling observation. From your description of retractile gills and rhinophores I would assume you had a dorid nudibranch, and nudibranchs are not herbivorous. I know my carnivorous dog eats grass at times when it's sick, but to my knowledge nudibranchs don't. It's possible that there was a sponge colony attached to the sea grasses but apart from that suggestion I really don't know what it was doing.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman.

Factsheet

Ceratosoma brevicaudatum

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