In order to find nudibranchs, you must slowly search the bottom
This ornate cryptic crawler is called a gold-line sea goddess. A gold-line sea goddess is a type of nudibranch. A nudibranch is a tiny sea slug. Just how tiny? Here is a photo of the gold-line sea goddess next to my finger.
Being so small, it’s no wonder most divers miss them. They only grow to an inch and a half long! In order to find nudibranchs, you must slowly search the bottom. This video gives you an understanding of how nudibranchs move about the benthic environment. You will see the gold-line sea goddess use its chemosensory organs (called rhinophores) to navigate. As you will note, there are no obvious eyes on the nudibranch. They do have tiny eyes. Nudibranchs can detect light as well as the intensity of light. It is assumed that because they have two eyes, they would also be able to determine the direction of light. Overall, they are considered to have a bad sense of sight. As you can see in this video, they rely heavily on their rhinophores for navigating.
Although they are tiny creatures, nudibranchs are big on color. You can easily see how this nudibranch got its name. Gold lines stripe its body, including a single outer golden line at the edge of their mantle. Their primary body colors are white and black. If you look closely, you will note occasional blue spots.
Nudibranch comes from the Latin word “nudus” meaning “naked”. The second part of the term comes from Ancient Greek “brankhia” meaning “gills”. If you look closely you can see flower-like plumes on the back of the nudibranch. These are its gills, its means of breathing.
This is the only gold-line sea goddess I’ve seen. I encountered this nudibranch while diving Blue Heron Bridge in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The flower-like plumes on the back of the nudibranch are its gills
Did you know?
- Although described as sea slugs, nudibranchs do not have shells.
- Nudibranchs live in a variety of depths, shallow to deep. A species was discovered at over 8000 feet deep!
- Rhinophores can detect odors.
- Nudibranch eyes contain a lens and five photoreceptors.
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