Tritonia hombergi

Tine Kinn Kvamme Tritonia hombergi next to freshly laid eggs. Length: 80 mm at 14 meters dept in 11° celcius. Drøbak in the Oslo Fjord, Norway.

Erling Svensen Just collected 2 kg of Tritonia hombergi today for reserch - or aprox. 30 species - big ones. Among them quite small ones, which I first thought was another specie. Very flat, but the shape and mouth left no doubt - small (1,5 - 2 cm) Tritonia hombergi.

Richard Lord A beautiful species

Keith Hiscock Is that for Paella or stir-fry?

Erling Svensen With eggs as bacon.....

Kirstie Harris I've always thought nudis would taste rather like fish-flavoured chewing gum.....

Sarah Bowen Two small Tritonia hombergi in an attempt to show more mound-like shape, along with oral veil.

Tine Kinn Kvamme Tritonia hombergi. Drøbak, Norway. Approx 80 mm lenght, at 14 meters dept.

João Pedro Silva Quite different colour from what I've seen before!

Tine Kinn Kvamme I´ve seen 3 of them at the same site recently. They are quite dark green here :)

João Pedro Silva They weren't included in the ckecklist for Portugal until last February and are quite dull coloured here.

Mieke Noordanus Wow!

Kirstie Knowles Big wow! Stunning.

Helgi Winther Olsen And here is a Tritonia hombergi from the Faroes with very visible parasites on it. This was a very small species, only 10 mm. Was in doubt if it was a hombergi. I'll post more pictures of it. This was mainly to add to the picture of a T. hombergi with copepods which Erling posted earlier.

Erling Svensen Back in Norway - so yesterday was diving again (very nice). I saw many Tritonia hombergi - really big ones. After close study the skin was full of small copeopods - very strange. Like the whole nudiskin was alive on a strange way.

Arne Kuilman Weird, I've yet to see a copepod on a (Dutch) nudibranch.

Helgi Winther Olsen I have seen quite many nudies with parasites on them in the Faroes. Wether they are copepods or something else, I am not able to tell you. It was mostly on F. verrucosa and L. clavigera which I saw them. Will post a few pics with L. clavigera carrying visitors.

Klas Malmberg Aquatilis Tritonia hombergi attacking its prey.

Terry Griffiths Tritonia hombergi ? taken yesterday was only about 5mm but another first for me.

Ross Bullimore would say so....

Christian Skauge I would guess so too, but it can be hard to tell unless you look at the oral veil/mouth tentacles. The broad body does however point in this direction, T. plebeia is usually narrower in my experience.

Terry Griffiths Thanks all at 5mm ID can be a hit and miss at times.

Dave Skingsley Time for an Opisthobranch from Millport Marine a few years a go - Tritonia hombergi

Tine Kinn Kvamme Tritonia hombergi crawling on it´s evening snack Alcyonium digitatum (Dead man´s fingers) Drøbak in the Oslo Fjord (Norway) Canon G16 in Canon housing, internal flash + handheld torch.

Tine Kinn Kvamme Tritonia hombergi nudibranch. Drøbak, Norway. Canon G12, internal flash + torch.

Marlyse Gehrig Amazing ... (y)

Ron Silver size?

Tine Kinn Kvamme About 80-100 mm. I've read they can get to about 200 mm. Biggest nudi in the ocean here up north.

Ron Silver Thanx

Tine Kinn Kvamme I saw another just a week ago out and about measuring 130-150 mm. Quite a few egg spirals from them too.

Ron Silver What color is the egg ribbon? I've seen some correlation between color of the nudi (or at least its food source) and its egg ribbon.

Tine Kinn Kvamme They are big and white but not exactly like a ribbon. I'll find a photo for you :-)

Tine Kinn Kvamme These are eggs from the Tritonia hombergi

Ron Silver Wow. A pile of spaghetti. What does T. hombergi feed on?

Tine Kinn Kvamme You often find them close to the Alcyonium digitatum or the Dead man´s fingers which they feed on.

Tine Kinn Kvamme Yes, a pile of spaghetti sounds better than egg ribbon :)

Marlyse Gehrig Thx for all these so interesting infos ..!!!

Tine Kinn Kvamme You are welcome Marlyse Gehrig :)

Tine Kinn Kvamme Here´s the bigger one stretched out

Marlyse Gehrig not so easy to see or find ... Thx Tine Kinn Kvamme ..<3 so much

David Kipling This comes into the "cute" category as opposed to needing ID! Tritonia hombergii discussing housing issues with a painted top shell... Photo taken N Wales.

David Kipling For camera nerds, this is the new Olympus 60mm u4/3 macro lens on a Pen EPL-1 with a couple of Inon S2000 strobes. My first "grown up" lens and one I'm starting to rather like!

Richard Yorke Didn't I see you were using an Inon Wet Diopter as well.

David Kipling Nope - that was on Sarah's XZ-1 compact. I've tried the Inon on the 60mm but the shallow DOF is too much of a PITA for general use, especially for a macro lens newbie!

Sarah Bowen Following on from an earlier thread talking about Tritonia hombergi/plebia; here's one that was bugging me from the Scillies in May 2010. From memory he was no more than about 5cms long, 22 m water and on a particularly rich site where we found Okenia elegans and Doris sticta as well. At the time we went for small Tritonia hombergi, but I'm now thinking plebia because of the 6 (or in this case 7) oral tentacles. What do others think?

Jim Anderson At that size and colour etc. I'd say hombergii

Christian Skauge Definitely T. plebeia in my opinion. T. hombergi has a different gob altogether - look at this image (pardon the looong link - must try and fix that on my homepage): http://www.undervannsfoto.no/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage99.tpl&product_id=274&category_id=1&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=224&item_num=3&total_items=3

Bernard Picton Sarah do you really mean 5 cm - looking at the bryozoan I would think it was smaller than that. I've seen this coloration in T. hombergi, have we got photographs of small ones?

Jon Chamberlain I thought I would share this pic of a Tritonia hombergi, very common in the UK, mainly found on Alcyonium digitatum (dead man's fingers). They are usually 1-3cms long but this one was approx 12cms and moving across gravel. http://www.flickr.com/photos/underwaterinferno/8079898048/in/set-72157631752211790 The tropics have more than their fair share of stunning nudis, but this one is definitely one of my favourites. Depth: 15m, Temp 11 deg C, Longstone End, Farne Islands, UK

João Pedro Silva Every time I found Alcyonium digitatum I look for T. hombergi but no look until now. Probably a lot less common around these parts. Nevertheless, we do have another spectacular tritoniid: Marionia blainvillea :)

Jon Chamberlain At this time of year at the Farne Islands/St Abbs you would be hard pressed to find a piece of A. digitatum that didn't have them on! Here is another photo of what is the usual scene: http://www.flickr.com/photos/underwaterinferno/8088017992/in/photostream/ Depth: 15m, Temp: 11 deg C, Conger Reef, Eyemouth, Scotland.

Tine Kinn Kvamme Tritonia hombergi nudibranch. Drøbak, Norway. Canon G12, internal flash + torch.

Marlyse Gehrig Amazing ... (y)

Ron Silver size?

Tine Kinn Kvamme About 80-100 mm. I've read they can get to about 200 mm. Biggest nudi in the ocean here up north.

Ron Silver Thanx

Tine Kinn Kvamme I saw another just a week ago out and about measuring 130-150 mm. Quite a few egg spirals from them too.

Ron Silver What color is the egg ribbon? I've seen some correlation between color of the nudi (or at least its food source) and its egg ribbon.

Tine Kinn Kvamme They are big and white but not exactly like a ribbon. I'll find a photo for you :-)

Tine Kinn Kvamme These are eggs from the Tritonia hombergi

Ron Silver Wow. A pile of spaghetti. What does T. hombergi feed on?

Tine Kinn Kvamme You often find them close to the Alcyonium digitatum or the Dead man´s fingers which they feed on.

Tine Kinn Kvamme Yes, a pile of spaghetti sounds better than egg ribbon :)

Marlyse Gehrig Thx for all these so interesting infos ..!!!

Tine Kinn Kvamme You are welcome Marlyse Gehrig :)

Tine Kinn Kvamme Here´s the bigger one stretched out

Marlyse Gehrig not so easy to see or find ... Thx Tine Kinn Kvamme ..<3 so much

Erling Svensen I send in a picture from 16. of January. I saw this tiny litle nudy on a Alcyonium in Egersund harbour (South West Norway). Could it be a small Dentronotus frondosus, or what do you think? It was only 1,5 cm long.

David Kipling Baby Tritonia hombergii perhaps? Right food source.

Erling Svensen May be. I did not think of this one but I am quite sure this is correct.

Christian Skauge This looks like a Tritonia plebeia. You can tell them apart by the mouth part - T. hombergi has two broad veils, and not the tentacles dispolayed by the T. plebeia. Food is the same in both species - Alcyonium digitatum, dead men's fingers.

David Kipling Thanks Christian. I was looking at those distinct oral processes and it seemed a bit wrong for T. hombergii, didn't know about this other species.

Christian Skauge Although it is distibuted from western med to Norway, this a quite small (max 30mm) and inconspicuous species. Not many people see it at all, and when they do it is commonly percieved as a baby hombergi - have done it myself for years :-)

Bernard Picton I think young T. hombergi might have only a few tentacles on the oral veil. For me the colour of T. plebeia is quite different. http://www.habitas.org.uk/marinelife/species.asp?item=W12460

Marco Faasse Maybe Rob Maller has a photo of a white Tritinia plebeia from the Netherlands?

Bjørnar Nygård Tritonia hombergi Bergen, Norway 16.02.13

Erling Svensen Veldig stilig bilde. Tatt et sted med endel strøm?

Bjørnar Nygård Det stemmer. Tatt med Tokina 10-17

Klas Malmberg Aquatilis Snyggt!

João Pedro Silva Lots of these eggs masses around today, mostly associated with Alcyonium glomeratum (I think...). Don't recall seeing them at this place before. Any idea on the "parents'" ID? Also found Tritonia hombergii for the first time today, rolling on the sandy bottom. No Alcyonium digitatum in sight, though.

Peter H van Bragt Where these spawn big and fat??? Could very well be T hombergii

João Pedro Silva Not sure how to handle "big" and "fat". They were rather big but the diameter was ~5-6cm. Some were slightly pink. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/8448904534/ The single T. hombergii I found there was ~4-5cm long.

João Pedro Silva The size reminded me of the spawn of Dondice banyulensis but these are thinner and very different in shape: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/5190093660

Peter H van Bragt Pink is often seen in T hombergii spawn. One can never be sure but it seems to be a candidate.

Jim Anderson These look like Tritonia hombergii spawn to me. I have a few examples here

Jim Anderson http://www.nudibranch.org/Scottish%20Nudibranchs/tritonia-hombergii.html

João Pedro Silva Thanks! I hope they're still around next week :)

Tony Gilbert Check out Tritonia plebia's spawn, if there are any piks for that. There maybe a subtle difference between the two. T. plebia likes A. digtatum, not so sure about A. glomeratum though.

Jim Anderson T. plebeia spawn is quite different and considerably smaller - see here http://www.nudibranch.org/Scottish%20Nudibranchs/html/tritonia-plebeia-spawn.html

Tony Gilbert Thanks Jim, always good to discount what is not.

Gary Gubby ˚͜˚ not seen these before,st abbs,10mtr on rocky bottom covered with brittlestars and plumose anemones

João Pedro Silva I think these are the eggs of an aeolid nudibranch. Determining the species may not be that easy unless you catch them "in the act".

Gary Gubby ˚͜˚ they were found not too far from several aeolidia papillosa nudis

João Pedro Silva And that's a strong suspect. Here it could easily be attributed to Spurilla neapolitana, too, athough this species is more often found spawning intertidally.

Ian Smith I don't think this is A. papillosa spawn which is a tight spiral which is then arranged in a larger spiral. There is a very good image of it on Bernard's online Encyclopedia of Marine life. Yours is a loose single spiral like a spring. It resembles more http://www.conchsoc.org/node/5272 , but I don't think it safe to identify it positively as Janolus. Can you crop in close enough to show the ova? J.hyalinus has few large capsules (many ova hidden within each); only 3 or 4 fit across the width of the string. A. papillosa has many more.

David Kipling Surely the spawn is too big for J hyalinus? Looking at the size of the brittle stars in the background this looks to be a big spawn coil, hence needing something chunky to lay it like A papillosa.

Ian Smith Janolus cristatus grows to a chunky 75mm and has similar form of spawn to J. hyalinus (26mm). I don't think it possible to say exactly what it is, but feel sure it's not A. papillosa.

David Kipling I'm pretty confident Gary's is not J cristatus spawn. His is a long spiral thread, J cristatus is laid out as a zip-zig disc with very visible white balls. I see loads of cristatus spawn in Bugula rich dive sites with loads of adults around (it usually triggers me to look for the adults!). However, I've only ever see hyalinus once and not with spawn, so can't comment on what that looks like. Are you thinking Gary's is cristatus or hyalinus spawn Ian?

David Kipling Here's a link to a classic cristatus spawn spiral for reference: http://www.seaslug.org.uk/nudibranchs/repro.html

Ian Smith David as I said, I don't think its possible to say exactly what it is, but I don't think it's papillosa.

David Kipling So if it's not cristatus or papillosa I wonder what it is? Perhaps it's not a nudibranch, would that be possible?

Ian Smith Discarded noodles from Chinese takeaway.

Ian Smith Maybe Gary will post a close up so we can discern ova capsules.

Gary Gubby ˚͜˚ tried to blow picture up but only distorts the picture,you cannot make out any more detail :-( but many thanks for all the input,i am still new to this identification thing so all help is greatly appreciated

Gary Gubby ˚͜˚ could these be the eggs from Tritonia hombergi,they look very similar,just looking through great british marine animals by Paul Naylor?

David Kipling Was there any dead man's finger in the area Gary?

Gary Gubby ˚͜˚ yes,plenty of them,st abbs is covered in dead mans fingers

Ian Smith Looks like you've done your own id Gary, congrats! Alder and Hancock in their great monograph, published 1845-1855, wrote: "The spawn is deposited in the form of a gelatinous yellowish-white cord, about the thickness of a small whip-cord of great length and very much convoluted." Form and size both fit your image.

João Pedro Silva Lots of these eggs masses around today, mostly associated with Alcyonium glomeratum (I think...). Don't recall seeing them at this place before. Any idea on the "parents'" ID? Also found Tritonia hombergii for the first time today, rolling on the sandy bottom. No Alcyonium digitatum in sight, though.

Peter H van Bragt Where these spawn big and fat??? Could very well be T hombergii

João Pedro Silva Not sure how to handle "big" and "fat". They were rather big but the diameter was ~5-6cm. Some were slightly pink. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/8448904534/ The single T. hombergii I found there was ~4-5cm long.

João Pedro Silva The size reminded me of the spawn of Dondice banyulensis but these are thinner and very different in shape: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/5190093660

Peter H van Bragt Pink is often seen in T hombergii spawn. One can never be sure but it seems to be a candidate.

Jim Anderson These look like Tritonia hombergii spawn to me. I have a few examples here

Jim Anderson http://www.nudibranch.org/Scottish%20Nudibranchs/tritonia-hombergii.html

João Pedro Silva Thanks! I hope they're still around next week :)

Tony Gilbert Check out Tritonia plebia's spawn, if there are any piks for that. There maybe a subtle difference between the two. T. plebia likes A. digtatum, not so sure about A. glomeratum though.

Jim Anderson T. plebeia spawn is quite different and considerably smaller - see here http://www.nudibranch.org/Scottish%20Nudibranchs/html/tritonia-plebeia-spawn.html

Tony Gilbert Thanks Jim, always good to discount what is not.

Becky Hitchin Anyone know who these egg whorls belong to? Taken at St Abbs a few days ago

Jussi Evertsen Tritonia hombergi most likely

Tony Gilbert I think the egg masses are too small and flimsy for a T. hombergii, agree with the others its more likely to be a T. plebia or even T.lineata. I've known infestations of T. lineata before now in Abbs. And, it is the place for T. hombergii that's for sure. There are not symmetrical enough to be Janolus. http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonyjgilbert-images/5084453074/in/set-72157624688589439