Name: 10 Amazing Sea Slugs (with footage)
Uploaded: 2025-05-04T17:11:44.000Z
Duration: 5 min 53 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

If you enjoyed this video and would like to see more, please take a moment to subscribe and support the channel.

Sea slugs, scientifically known as nudibranch, literally translates to naked gill.

To put it simply, they are sea snails without a shell.

By losing their only defence mechanism, they have been forced to evolve and develop other defence systems.

Some can blend in with their surroundings, others can get a bit more dangerous and use their toxic glands or stinging cells.

From the deep mysterious waters, enjoy 10 sea slugs that look absolutely out of this world.

Hopkins Rose Nudibranch The Hopkins Rose goes by the scientific name of Euchenia rosacea.

This bubblegum-coloured sea slug can be found in abundance on the west coast of North America.

Its back is entirely covered with long soft-tapered papilla, which are often more discoloured or even white towards the tips.

Their beautiful vivid pink colouring comes from their diet, more specifically from the xanthophyllic pigment which is found in their food.

The life expectancy of a Hopkins Rose Nudibranch is roughly 12 months.

The Spanish Dancer The Spanish Dancer's scientific name is Hexabranchus sanguineus, literally translating to blood-coloured six gills.

Unlike most of its kind, the Spanish Dancer is a nocturnal nudibranch that can grow up to 60cm long at its maximum length.

It can be spotted on the eastern coast of Africa, Hawaii, Japan and Australia.

If you're wondering where its name comes from, well, that is from its unique swimming pattern, which happens through contractions and undulations of the body, similar to those of traditional Spanish Dancers.

Yamasa Scathona Resembling more a tiny shaggy rug than a marine animal, the Yamasa Scathona is distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific up to Australia and Japan.

It grows up to only 5cm long and it feeds on stinging hydrids.

Its colour variants are vast and highly variable in colour patterns, but they can always be identified by their gold or yellow cerato tips on their back.

Reproduction-wise, all ceaseless are hermaphrodite, which means that during mating the more dominant nudibranch will act as a male and the other as a female, even though they are both equipped with both sexual organs.

Mexichromis Multituberculata This nudibranch is found in both China and Japan and it reaches an adult size of 3cm.

It's known to feed on sponges and lays its eggs like most nudibranchs in a spiral pattern, protecting them until they hatch.

The reproduction is identical to that of the Yamasa Scathona nudibranch, so the dominant slug will act as the male, fertilising the hermaphrodite female.

Ceres Elegans This translucent petal-like surface nudibranch is widely distributed in the Indo-Pacific and it grows to an adult size of maximum 4cm long.

When threatened it can secrete a mucus for defence or even shed some of its own petal-like cerata when attacked by a predator, just like a lizard sheds its tail when in imminent danger.

It is known to be mostly nocturnal and lays its eggs in a spiral mass, which hatch after only 7 days.

The Sea Sheep The Sea Sheep is known by its scientific name as Costocelacoroshimae.

It's as tiny as it is cute, growing up to only 5mm in length.

It can be found near Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines.

They are part of a very select few sea slugs that can perform photosynthesis, allowing them to feed on sunlight like plants do, which always comes in handy if the food resources run low.

Its green colouring comes from feeding on algae and through kleptoplasty they retain some of the colour of the food they consume.

Sea Angel The Sea Angel or the Naked Sea Butterfly is scientifically known as Cleonelimasina.

It can be found in the cold depths of the Arctic, Pacific and Atlantic.

It was named a Sea Angel based entirely on its appearance due to its flapping, wing-like parapodia resembling angel wings.

To not be confused with the Sea Butterfly, which is actually their prey.

Its adult size varies between 3cm to 8cm long and has a lifespan of minimum 2 years.

Like all nudibranchs, the Sea Angel is hermaphrodite, but the fertilisation happens internally.

The Lettuce Slug The Lettuce Slug goes by the scientific name of Alicia chryspata.

This sea slug resembles a nudibranch but it is in fact classified as a saccoglossum.

It is known to live in the Western Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean faunal zone.

Its adult size is approximately 5cm long.

Its common name comes from the green curly parapodia on its body resembling the leaves of a curly lettuce.

Its colour variants are extremely ample, shifting between blue, green, pale, with yellow or red lines.

Also part of the rare solar-powered sea slugs, Alicia chryspata draws its energy from the sun and it spends it in search for algae.

Thicoceratopacifica Also known as the Pikachu nudibranch.

Taking a close look, you have to admit the resemblance is undeniable.

It can be spotted in Indonesia and its adult size is approximately 15mm long.

Its lifespan is similar to that of most nudibranchs, living up to approximately 1 year old.

The Blue Velvet Hedgehood Slug I know it looks like something out of Tron, but rest assured it is still a sea slug.

It is scientifically known as Caledonura variants.

It's widely distributed in the tropical waters of the Indo-Pacific and its adult maximum size is 7cm long.

Due to its black velvet colouring and electric blue lines, the species is often mistaken for the Phalaenopsis gardneri nudibranch, which is very similar in colour but somewhat different in shape.

If you want to see more videos like this one, remember to like and subscribe to get smart.