Favorite Images of Sea Slugs

A list of my favorite images of sea slugs.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_slug

Sea slug is a common name which is applied to some marine invertebrates that more or less resemble terrestrial slugs.

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

The name "sea slug" is most often applied to nudibranchs, as well as to a paraphyletic set of other marine gastropods without obvious shells.

The phrase "sea slug" is, however, also sometimes applied to taxa in other phyla, such as the sea cucumbers, which are not mollusks but echinoderms. Although the other animals sometimes called "sea slugs" are not gastropods, they are nonetheless soft-bodied, and their overall shape is slug-like.

Sea slugs come in an outstanding variety of shapes, colors and sizes, with gills and pointed tentacles on their backs.

Sea slugs have translucent bodies that have just about every color on the rainbow.

Due to the bright, outgoing colors found on the reef, there is a constant threat of predators. This is the cause for a warning of color to show the sea slugs’ predators that they are poisonous with stinging cells, but their colors are mainly for disguise.

Like all gastropods, they have razor-sharp teeth called radulas.

Most sea slugs have two pairs of tentacles on their head used primarily for sense of smell, with a small eye at the base of each tentacle.

Many have feathery structures (ceratia) on the back, often in a contrasting color. These act as gills.

All species of sea slugs have a selected prey, that is specifically fitted for them to hunt. This can be among other sea slugs, jellyfish, bryozoans, sea anemones, plankton and other various organisms.