Nudibranchs

Nudibranchs are noted for their brilliant colors and striking forms. They are easy to spot especially on pilings around the marina. They feed on sponges, barnacles and other small animals and will even eat other nudibranchs! These soft-bodied animals breath through plume-like gills on their backs. They are distantly related to slugs and snails.

Clown Nudibranch
Triopha catalinae
Opalescent white body with
prominent orange tubercles; likes
to feed on bryozoans

Golden Dirona
Dirona pellucida
Orange body and long tapering
orange cerata tipped with white;
grazes on bryozoans

Red Dendronotus
Dendronotus Rufus
Large opalescent white body with
mass of long branching cerata
tipped with maroon

Red Sponge Nudibranch
Rostanga pulchra
Small (to 2 cm) red leathery
gumdrop, lacking prominent
external gills of rhinophores,
usually on red sponge

Monterey Dorid
Doris montereyensis
Large (to 15 cm), granular, bulky,
light yellow with yellow branchial
plumes, some tubercles black

Sea Lemon
Peltodoris noblis
Large (to 20 cm) granular and
bulky, yellow/orange with white
branchial plumes, some small
black spots on (not tubercles)

San Diego or Ringed Dorid
Dialula sandiegensis
White to beige body with various
patterns of brown spots or rigngs;
a sponge grazer

Nanaimo Dorid
Acanthodoris nanaimoensis
Small (4 cm) granular, flat white
dorid, rhinophores and branchial
plumes tipped with maroon/brown
Shaggy Mouse
Aeolida papillosa
Small (to 4 cm) and soft with mass
of long, thin grayish brown ceratta,
prominent oral tentacles

Opalescent Nudibranch
Hermissenda crassicornis
Translucent with orange line down
middle of back, long, thin cerata
tipped in red/orange and white