What is a nudibranch for kids?

A blob the size of a teacup slinks along the ocean floor in the shallow waters off of Australia. It's a type of sea slug called the nudibranch (NEW-dih-bronk), a slime-oozing creature with a boneless body. Many of them also sport brilliant colors and eye-catching patterns on their skin.

What is a nudibranch and what is special about it?

Nudibranchs are a group of soft-bodied, marine gastropod molluscs. Some are known for their extraordinary colours and striking forms, and they have been given fun nicknames to match, such as "sea goddess", "splendid", “dragon", “painted” or 'dancer” just to name a few.

What does a nudibranch do?

To identify prey, they have two highly sensitive tentacles, called rhinophores, located on top of their heads. Nudibranchs derive their coloring from the food they eat, which helps in camouflage, and some even retain the foul-tasting poisons of their prey and secrete them as a defense against predators.

What is a sea slug for kids?

Most creatures known as sea slugs are actually gastropods, i.e. they are sea snails (marine gastropod mollusks) that over evolutionary time have either completely lost their shells, or have seemingly lost their shells due to having a greatly reduced or internal shell.

Is a nudibranch a snail?

Nudibranchs are grouped with snails and slugs in the class Gastropoda, but they differ from snails by having no shell, or at least a greatly reduced one. As their name implies, nudibranchs are further identifiable by their naked or exposed gills. The gills are easily visible on the backs of most nudibranchs.

Slimy Sea Slug | Scuba Sam's World

Do nudibranchs swim?

Nudibranchs move on a flat, broad muscle called a foot, which leaves a slimy trail. While most are found on the ocean floor, some can swim short distances in the water column by flexing their muscles. Some even swim upside down.

What type of animal is a nudibranch?

nudibranch, also called sea slug, any of the marine gastropods that constitute the order Nudibranchia (subclass Opisthobranchia of the class Gastropoda). Nudibranchs possess a radular feeding organ, but they characteristically lack a shell, gills, and mantle cavity typical of other mollusks.

Is nudibranch a fish?

Nudibranchs (/ˈnjuːdɪbræŋk/) are a group of soft-bodied marine gastropod molluscs which shed their shells after their larval stage.

Do nudibranchs have teeth?

The animals have a set of curved teeth, which they use to eat coral, sponges, and fish eggs off the ocean floor. Nudibranchs use tentacles on their heads to poke around for grub.

Do nudibranchs have eyes?

Nudibranch eyes are located on the head, just at the base of structures called rhinophores (we'll look at these in more detail in a bit). They are extremely small, and as such are difficult to see in photographs (you can see a couple on this Sea Slug Forum page: www.seaslugforum.net/find/2377).

Can nudibranch be a pet?

The short answer is no. I would not recommend keeping nudibranchs to anyone (for several reasons). They are extremely hard to keep fed. Lets say you have a sponge-eating nudi like a Phyllidia.

Do nudibranchs sting?

But these slugs aren't joking around. Some species of nudibranch have turned to a life of crime, robbing prey of their only defences: their stings.

Do nudibranchs have brains?

Drs. Akira Sakurai and Paul Katz of Georgia State's Neuroscience Institute study the brains of sea slugs, more specifically nudibranchs, which have large neurons that form simple circuits and produce simple behaviors.

Can nudibranchs survive out of water?

In the case of nudibranchs with a thin skin, which is also used for gas exchange, they can remain alive for some hours as long as they remain damp.

Do nudibranchs eat snails?

Nudibranchs get their colors from the food they eat. That means that these sea slugs come in every color imaginable! They eat anything they can find on the ocean floor. That includes algae, sea sponges, and corals.

Do nudibranchs have blood?

Nudibranch blood is called hemolymph. Because it lacks hemoglobin, the protein that gives our blood its colour, it's hard to spot through the nudibranch's transparent skin. Hemolymph acts as more than just blood.

Are all nudibranchs poisonous?

Some nudibranchs are poisonous while others pretend to be poisonous, which is evident by their vibrant colors. They feed on stinging cells of hydrozoids and store them in the rear of their body for protection.

Where do nudibranchs live in the ocean?

Nudibranchs are found in all the oceans of the world, in warm or cold waters. They live at or near the bottom of the sea and have been found at depths between 30 and 6,500 feet below the surface of the ocean.

How do nudibranchs lay eggs?

When nudibranchs mate they fertilize each other and then both can lay eggs! To do this, they line up their genital pores, the openings on the right sides of their body, and then copulate.

What animal eats nudibranch?

Predation. 'Nudis' have few predators and are at risk only from other nudibranchs, turtles, some crabs and humans. Over years of evolution they have discarded their protective shell and so rely on other forms of protection and defence to deter would-be predators.

Are nudibranchs soft?

Nudibranchs are soft bodied, marine molluscs that shed their shells after their larval stage. They normally have extraordinary colouration patterns and prominent forms. The word nudibranch comes from the Latin word nudus meaning 'naked' and the Greek word brankhia that means 'gills'.

What's the difference between a sea slug and a nudibranch?

Often the term “nudibranch” is used for all sea slugs. However, while all nudibranchs are sea slugs, not all sea slugs are nudibranchs. “Sea slug” does not stand for a specific taxonomic group but they are part of different clads in the class of Gastropoda (snails and slugs including those in freshwater and on land).

Are nudibranchs plankton?

Most nudibranchs are benthic, crawling around on the seafloor or reef rather than swimming, in the water column. However, during their larval stages, most species are planktonic.

What does nudibranch literally mean?

Their name is derived from the latin nudibranchia, which means literally “naked gills,” and describes the feather-like gills and horns often found on their head or clustered on their back. They greatly range in size, with small ones being measured around only a few millimetres. You are what you eat.

Why are nudibranchs so colorful?

Biologists call it aposematism; it is the ability to prevent attacks by warning potential predators that the animal has defenses such as being unpalatable or poisonous, displaying flamboyant colors or contrasted stripes.