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Marionia distincta
A beautiful Nudibranch which camouflages/mimics the soft corals. It is from the genus of Marionia, nocturnal species usually coming out to feed among the soft corals during night time. This find is around 6 cm in length. Pic#6 shows it among the soft coral patches, which makes them quite difficult to spot/see. When not moving or resting, it is much more difficult to see them as they retracts their cerrata and looks just like lump of soft coral. Their Rhinopores are not the typical stalk type, they have a base which looks like petals of flowers.
Tropical reefs among coral rubbles with soft coral growths
Spotted on Mar 1, 2015
Submitted on Mar 6, 2015
3 Comments
Thanks, @Mark and @andrew.
@andrew, you can find them at quite a few dive sites in Anilao, among which - Koala, Arthurs Rock, Secret Garden/Balanoy, Kirby's Rock, Saddle, Bethlehem and Layag-Layag. I have seen them and variety of species in different colors (brown orange like the above), green, reddish, yellowish.
You have better chance to see them at dive sites with corals which they feeds on and on night dives, or if you have good spotter in Anilao, they might be able to find them for you ;)
Most of the time, I find them at the shallows from 3 meters to 15 meters depth.
Incredible animal. Very nice series Albert.
So Amazing. I've been looking for this type of nudibranch for a long time and can never seem to find them. Beautiful! Especially the first picture.