nudibranch red sea

[glamourpuss 3]

I came across this little guy on a night dive last week in the Southern Red Sea. Couldn't find him in any of the books. He was only about a 2cm or so long, so could be a juvenile that will change colors into something more recognizable later, but not sure.

 

Anyone got any ideas?

 

[jander4454 15]

I came across this little guy on a night dive last week in the Southern Red Sea. Couldn't find him in any of the books. He was only about a 2cm or so long, so could be a juvenile that will change colors into something more recognizable later, but not sure.

 

Anyone got any ideas?

 

It looks more like a flatworm - possibly unidentified.

[Timmoranuk 10]

I can't find it in any of my reference books. It may be worth sending to Bernard Picton who is the Curator of marine invertebrates at National Museums of Northern Ireland - bernard.picton@nmni.com

[meme.may.fire 2]

Found a similar one here in Malaysia few weeks back.

But the color is different.

My bet, it is a flatworm.

 

By meyrmayfire at 2011-09-21

[Leslie 0]

Yes, it's a flatworm. Nudibranch books will not be helpful.

:-)

[scubamarli 5]

It appears to be this one:

Marine Flatworms of the World

 

Cheers,

Marli

[glamourpuss 3]

That one looks kind of close scubamarli, but not quite sure.

[glamourpuss 3]

Got an email back from Bernard Picton, and he also has no idea what kind of flatworm it is.

 

Yes, it is certainly a flatworm, but I’ve no idea what species it is, I can’t find it on any website. These Polyclad flatworms often mimic nudibranchs. Many of them don’t have names yet.

[Leslie 0]

That's pretty much what I expected. My guess is that there are as many undescribed species of flatworms as there are described ones --- maybe more.