Live To Dive Chapter - Nudibranch

Sakuraeolis Nungunoides

To divers, apart from the excitement of sighting whale shark, manta rays or other big fishes, we are often attracted to nudibranch, for their vibrant & striking color in the sea. It belongs to family of sea slugs, it is a snail-like creature without protection of shells and it feed mainly on sea anemones.
So beautiful and eye catching look just like diamonds in the rough.

Love to be served with colorful food on my plates, I thought it'd be awesome to put it on sushi and serve it to my friend when I first saw them during my dive!

Nembrota lineolata

There are up to thousands type of nudibranchs exist around the world, to each color, pattern, size and form.
While it requires professional camera, underwater housing and gears to capture these tiny loves (some as small as a grain of rice), I've gotten some photos from my personal bangla who carries a Hermes into the sea with him.

I still couldn't afford them pricey toys, but investing in a GoPro with its wide angle capability allowed me to show off  none others but the one and only limited edition underwater creature , mii awesome selfie.

Having said that, "You are what you eat.".
That doesn't mean you will turn into a potato or tomato if you're chewing one now.
But this cute little love under that almost every diver would love to see and capture, seem to have taken the statement very seriously.

Hypselodoris Tryoni

Nudibranchs are picky eater, they eat only one kind of prey or two. They spend approx 3-5 hours daily on munching inactively. Instead of getting sick or died from their food, they stores these poison in their body and absorb the color, making it look like a moving snacks for fishes. Yes they are tiny, but they are not defenseless, not at all!

While most of them are harmless to human, it's bright colors stands a beautiful defense shouting at its predator saying "Once bitten, considered sold!" Awesome shit.

Taringa Halgerda

Although small, but they are strong adapting creature. They can be found in all world's sea but it is more common in tropicana and warm temperate seas. In our recent trip to Anilao, Philippines known for its underwater macro world, these loves are everywhere once we descent! *lucky us*

Staying at Sea's Spring resort beside the not so secret dive site - Secret Bay (Mainit Muck), we definitely enjoyed our eyes training session for spotting the little creatures as small as baby's pinky during muck diving.

Muck diving's my second favorite after drift dive. Being a lazy diver, I love how little we have to fin underwater, and spot them small patches of life here and there in the layout of sand.

Janolus Savinkini, Photo credited to Aaron Suah

.......
However, these beautiful creatures don't live a long live.
Some live only for a few weeks while some live up to a year.
Time to light up our live with some colors don't we?



L.