Our Most Gorgeous Nudibranch Yet

Fish & Invertebrate sightings and descriptions, hosted by resident NWDC ID expert Janna Nichols (nwscubamom).
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dwashbur
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Our Most Gorgeous Nudibranch Yet

Post by dwashbur »

Warning, more Monterey stuff ahead:

We found several of these on our 7 dives at Monterey. They're unbelievably lovely, especially when the cerata get to gently waving with the surge. At times they wave so much that they obscure the rhinophores and branchial plume, but that's okay, because the whole thing is beautiful. The scientific name is Okenia rosacea, popular name (according to Behrens) is Hopkins' Rose. They're not more than an inch long, and the ones we found were about as wide as they were long. Here's a single and a double:

Image

Image
Dave

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nwscubamom
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Post by nwscubamom »

They look an awful lot like a fish-eating anemone!!

Pretty cool stuff - never seen one before.

- Janna :)
Janna Nichols
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Dusty2
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Post by Dusty2 »

Thanks Dave for sharin these beautys
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LCF
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Post by LCF »

Those are a great favorite of my friends in Los Angeles. Ken has some fantastic pictures of them, but I didn't get to see any when I was there.
"Sometimes, when your world is going sideways, the second best thing to everything working out right, is knowing you are loved..." ljjames
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