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Mystery Slug
Photo courtesy of Jose Victor “Jovic” Santos
Dos Palmas Resort, Palawan, Philippines
Oct. 2007
Mystery Slug, undescribed
Jose and I just wanted to share with your readers a picture of the mystery nudibranch (
(week 486) that we’ve been looking for ever since we’ve first spotted it in 2005. Most of the photographers who’ve been to Club Ocellaris have been calling it the “Neon Nudibranch” because of its bright colors, and has been on their wish list ever since it came out on your website. After looking for two years in Anilao, I was pleasantly surprised when one of our divemasters here in Dos Palmas, Victor Verdida, found three of them feeding on an Alicia sp. anemone at forty feet. The dive site is called AIR2 with a substrate of mostly white sand and gradually sloping to 60 feet before flattening out.
Dos Palmas Resort, Philippines
Nov., 2007
Send Alexis email at asprincipe2002@yahoo.com
WEBMASTER'S NOTES: No name to my knowledge has been assigned to our mystery nudibranch although the fact that it feeds on anemones will certainly narrow the genus placement. I believe a sighting has been made in the Lembeh Straits area of Indonesia but was unable to find the citation on Bill Rudman's Sea Slug Forum. Sure would love to get High Definition Video of this guy! Thank again Alexis and Jovic for sharing your experience and photos of the "Mystery" nudibranch!
Just heard from Scott Johnson in the Marshall Islands who first photographed this guy back in 1982! This creature seems to have a much broader distribution than what might have been believed earlier! Please visit Scott's Marshall Islands Opisthobranch page for this important update!
Jovic is a businessman based in Manila and regularly dives Anilao. One of his businesses includes Splash Underwater Photography which sells underwater photo and video equipment like Hugyfoot and Seacam housings, Greenforce lighting systems and Ultralight strobe arms in the Philippines.
Jovic uses a NikonD80 in a Hugyfoot housing with two Z240 Inon strobes… and his favorite subjects are, of course, nudibranchs.
Email Jovic at splashuwimaging@gmail.com
Jose Victor “Jovic” Santos
