Ceratosoma tenue

Ilan Lubitz Nudibranch (Ceratosoma tenue) Anilao. Philippines. Nikon D3X. 60mm. SB-105.

Greotti Cesare nice picture BRAVO

Ilan Lubitz Tnx Greotti =D

Ilan Lubitz Nudibranch (Ceratosoma tenue) Anilao. Philippines. Nikon D3X. 60mm. SB-105.

Ilan Lubitz Nudi (ceratosoma tenue) Mainit hot springs Philippines

Scubashooters Dot Net Lovely shot Ilan! :)

Ilan Lubitz tnx Scubashooters Dot Net :-)

Ryan Pearson Hey All. Have I ID'd the Ceratosoma tenue on here right? I'd never seen them in the Seaway before, but found a bunch of them today. Particularly interested in whether the juve is correct. Thanks, Ryan.

Ashley Missen Looks right to me

Ryan Pearson Nice! Thanks :)

Matthias Wildermuth Cool blog like it

Ryan Pearson Thanks Matthias. Feel free to follow :)

Deb Aston Ryan, check out the Gold Coast nudibranchs album here, I have labelled all the pics so it may help with IDs.

Ryan Pearson Nice one Deb. Didn't know that was there. It'll come in very handy in the future :)

Ilan Lubitz Nudibranch (Ceratosoma tenue) Anilao. Philippines. Nikon D3X. 60mm. SB-105.

Ilan Lubitz Nudibranch (Ceratosoma tenue) Anilao. Philippines. Nikon D3X. 60mm. SB-105.

Tini Palar beautiful creature

Ilan Lubitz Tnx Tini =D

Vinny Apuzzo Nudi Lembeh. Ceratosoma tenue D80 F25-1/200 ISO 200

Vinny Apuzzo Sorry 2 X Inon Z-240

Ken Thongpila Very nice Vinny :-)

Ilan Lubitz Nudi (ceratosoma tenue) Mainit hot springs Philippines

Johny Leffelaer Also this Ceratosoma tenue and hitchiker comes from Lembeh,shot was taken with my G12. Settings, s.1/60 , f. 8 , iso 320.

Ilan Lubitz Nudi (ceratosoma tenue) Mainit hot springs Philippines

Ilan Lubitz Nudi (ceratosoma tenue) Mainit hot springs Philippines

Zanetti Martina waeeeeeee wonderful

Noriyuki Otani Ceratosoma tenue Gyoshou point, Owase, Mie, Japan Depth 20m Sea&Sea 2G

Ilse Merz great shot!

Giacomo Marchione The rider

Ron Silver Emperor Shrimp on T-Bar (Ceratosoma tenue) nudibranch

Andrey Shpatak Many-lobed seratosoma. Anilao & Jeju-Do. Nikon D700+Nikkor 60mm(Tamron 90mm)+1,5TC. Nov 2011 & Apr 2012.

Ron Silver Ceratosoma tenue

Padoy Fajermo

Ron Silver Ceratosoma tenue

Ex Liao 6cm long, 55ft in depth, dayang point, talicud island, davao...

Gary Cobb This is Ceratosoma tenue

Ex Liao Thanks ..

Ryan Pearson Nudi on a fish! Tonight in the GC Seaway :P

Patrik Good Nice. How many Ceratosoma tenue did you find? What sizes (if you remember)? Fantastic nudi spotting time down at the Seaway. Full moon nights are the best especially in those magnificent conditions. Wish I could dive this weekend. Happy to know about all your nudi finds.

Ryan Pearson Just the one C. tenue. Heaps of bubble shells and flatworms, and a couple of other nudi species. I'll post some pics when I get them processed. There was macro algae everywhere though! Covering the seagrass. I've never seen it look like that before.

Patrik Good Yeah, keep me posted. It can't get any worse than February 2012, when everything was brown in brown after the rain in January, no green, no growth, only one species abundant. Saw quite a few big floating algae, aka snot weed, last week too. It will be interesting to see if there are patterns happening in the Seaway. I reckon that the best branching months lie ahead of us with still plenty of different food sources around. Your observations lie within expectations, lots of bubble shells but only the occasional C. tenue.

Ryan Pearson Sea penns were tangled in algae... It's bad. I don't remember feb being this bad.

Patrik Good Very interesting. I'd be more than keen on knowing what branchs you found in February and March at the Seaway and I will certainly try to have a look at the algae situation between the concrete platform and the beach next week. What worried me in February is that as far as I am concerned there were neither sea pen nor algae around, no seagrass, hardly any sponges, everything fouled and rotten away with the freshwater and silt. Goniodoridella sp. 1 loved the conditions back then and they are still around in huge numbers.

Penn Dls 5m, 29 ºC, 6cm. Anilao, Philippines.

Blogie Robillo Looks like C. tenue, but there are no extra lobes... Might be C. trilobatum.

Jun V Lao ceratosoma tenue :) or gracillimum

Jun V Lao from the base of nudibase http://dragonmouse.com.au/diving/nudibase.php

Peter Gillard N/E coast Taiwan, about 15m

David Niddam I saw a few of those yesterday in Yilan.

Peter Gillard that's where that one was :-)

Blogie Robillo Is this Ceratosoma tenue, Gary?

Gary Cobb Ceratosoma trilobatum is my choice Blogie.

Andrey Shpatak Lembeh strait. Many-lobed ceratosoma with eggs. Nikon D300+Nikkor 60mm. Nov. 2008.

Ron Silver Ceratosoma tenue

Andrey Shpatak Thanks

Giorgio Cavallaro (Y)

Nadya Kulagina Fathers and Sons Nikon D800, 60mm ISO 100, 1/250, f/29

Ron Silver Ceratosoma tenue

Ning Chang

Matthias Wildermuth Nice. u do boat dives from singspore? Cool.nudis

Sven Kahlbrock Cool Ceratosoma spec?? cf trilobatum??

Gary Cobb Ceratosoma tenue Abraham,1876 One of the differences between Ceratosoma trilobatum and C. tenue are the 3 lobes on the sides of the animal in C tenue, C. trilobatum has 2.

Ning Chang Hi Matthias, unfortunately the local diving is not great. Most of these are shot in Lembeh.

Matthias Wildermuth Thanks great pics anyway

Linda Goldrich Lembeh December 2009... need to get back there!!!

Alan C. Egan I need to add it to my to do list

Linda Goldrich Maybe I'll put together a small group for 1/2 2012

Roy Arthur David Lontoh ceratosoma laying eggs? very nice and lucky!

Linda Goldrich Thanks... thought it had eggs but wasn't sure!

Roy Arthur David Lontoh am sure its laying eggs....but perhaps Gary can help :)

Linda Goldrich Gary who??

Roy Arthur David Lontoh Gary Cobb....but I just found out he's not a member of this group....if you don't mind you may post this image in "nudibranch lover" group Linda :)

Ashley Missen Yep Ceratosoma tenue laying eggs great shot

Gary Cobb Hi everyone! Yes this is Ceratosoma tenue laying it's eggs! Nice capture. As with all nudibranch finds...you have to be at the right place at the right time!

Ken Thongpila Here you are Gary Cobb :-) He is on our group and he can answer lots of Nudibranch questions.. Thanks Gary :-)

Gary Cobb Gosh Ken thanks! ID above.

Ahmet Yay Nudy, Anilao Canon 600D-Sea&Sea Housing - Canon 60 mm macro 2xYS-D1 Sea&Sea Flash - Subsee +10 diopter 1/200, f:10 Asa:100

John Paul Connor Belle

Ron Silver Ceratosoma tenue

Stuart Pearce Beauty :)

Epp Kikas Nii ilus! :-)

Ahmet Yay Thank you very much dear fb friends...

Gary Cobb Hope this makes life easier... 1. Ceratosoma trilobatum is characterised by having only one large lateral lobe on each side of the body, just anterior to the gills. 2. Ceratosoma tenue can be characterised by the three mantle lobes on each side of the body. There is a large anterior lobe on either side of the head and a large lobe on each side by the gills. Between these is a smaller lobe which is joined by a ridge to the gill lobe, but not the head lobe. The edge of the lobes and the ridge joining the posterior lobes is usually outlined with a broken purple line. 3. Ceratosoma gracillimum can be distinguished externally by the complete absence of the mantle edge between the head and the well-developed lateral lobes on each side, just in front of the gills.

Ashley Missen Thanks Gary - good add

Patrick Preston II Thanks. Is there an online collection of characteristic traits like the above? I was a forestry major, and we had keys to identify all the plants in our area. Maybe a better question would be: Is there an online collection of the scientific papers describing each species?

Gary Cobb Yes every described species has had a scientific paper written about it. How you can get one is another problem...try Google! The paper would have everything about the species and what makes it different than everything else.

Gary Cobb A databased driven character trait website...I have never seen one. The Nudibranch ID Apps I have been doing work well with searches and work primarily on colour, size, name, author, dates, families and orders. And it work very fast and without internet connection.

Ashley Missen Have seen one but it was for fish id - but the concept could be transferred easily enough -- http://www.divearound.com.au/fish/identify.html

Gary Cobb I do believe this is a Branch Show Ash!

Ashley Missen Yes I know Gary - but use these concept on a nudi ID site - body shape, gill types - patterns and so forth - would be cool and with colours too

Patrick Preston II They do have a nudibranch section. I tried to describe a Chomodoris willani (first one that came to my head) and it shot out Chromodoris coi. But yes it is more geared towards fish. I keep thinking about the first time I saw a Ceratosoma miamirana. I would have never thought that it was a Ceratosoma. It took lots of time looking through pics to figure it out. With its characteristic spots on the underside of the mantle, it could have saved some time.

Patrick Preston II I googled the apps. Is there one that will work on my laptop? Or is it only for Iphones

Ashley Missen Will be adding some new features in version 2 of the Nudibase - request accepted

Gary Cobb The Apps are for iPhone and work on iPad too.

Elodie Camprasse Hello Nudibranch Lovers! I am writing an article on nudibranchs in Vietnam and I'd like to be sure of the identification of species on the photos I am going to submit... Is this Ceratosoma tenue?

Erwin Koehler I think this is Ceratosoma gracillimum Semper in Bergh, 1876

Elodie Camprasse thank you for your help Erwin!!

Ilan Lubitz Nudibranch (Ceratosoma tenue) Anilao. Philippines. Nikon D3X. 60mm. SB-105.

Gary Cobb This Ceratosoma gracillimum because C. tenue has 3 lobes on each side of the mantle plus since the purple mantle margin does not extend from the anterior lobes to the gill lobes makes this C. gracillimum and only has 2 lobes

Ilan Lubitz Tnx Gary for the info =D

Gary Cobb I hope this helps.

Ilan Lubitz yes Gary it help =D

Jim Anderson My Philippine Nudibranchs website is updated following our recent trip - 92 species added plus many additional images.

Patrik Good Nice work. Makes me to follow up on two of my IDs based on your Gastropteron sp. 2 and Hypselodoris sp. 2 pictures. There seem to be little differences between Gastropteron, Siphopteron and Sagaminopteron. At the moment I can't see why your Hypselodoris sp. 2 can not be a Hypselodoris obscura that we are finding in all sorts of texture and colour variations.

Erwin Koehler I will check the IDs if time permits... I think this one http://www.nudibranch.org/Philippine%20Sea%20Slugs/html/nudibranchs/phyllodesmium-crypticum-01.html is Phyllodesmium pinnatum Moore & Gosliner, 2009

Blogie Robillo Nice collection!

Blogie Robillo I do believe this one that you labeled Chromodoris sp. 22 is in fact Glossodoris rufomarginata: http://www.nudibranch.org/Philippine%20Sea%20Slugs/html/nudibranchs/chromodoris-sp22-01.html

Erwin Koehler I think this one http://www.nudibranch.org/Philippine%20Sea%20Slugs/html/nudibranchs/phyllodesmium-sp2-01.html is Phyllodesmium tuberculatum Moore & Gosliner, 2009

Blogie Robillo This one might not be H. tryoni (but I'm not sure): http://www.nudibranch.org/Philippine%20Sea%20Slugs/html/nudibranchs/Hypselodoris%20tryoni-03.html

Christopher Thorn Fantastic!

Jim Anderson Thanks folks - I've corrected and updated the site - please pass on any more mistakes!!

Erwin Koehler the Aegires villosus variant with the black tips is in IPN at page 144 Aegires sp. 4, I am not convinced that they are distinct species.

Erwin Koehler Comment from Dr. Richard C. Willan at NUDIPIXEL: "Atagema ornata and Atagema intecta both relate to the same species and we must use Atagema ornata (instead of Atagema intecta - which is more common in the literature) because it is the older name."

Erwin Koehler This specimen has 5 lobes http://www.nudibranch.org/Philippine%20Sea%20Slugs/html/nudibranchs/ceratosoma-trilobatum-01.html it is Ceratosoma tenue

Erwin Koehler This specimen http://www.nudibranch.org/Philippine%20Sea%20Slugs/html/nudibranchs/dermatobranchus-sp1-01.html looks like Dermatobranchus pustulosus van Hasselt, 1824

Erwin Koehler Nembrotha yonowae Goethel & Debelius, 1992 has a red margin of the foot similar to N. kubaryana Bergh, 1877, your specimens are undescribed, I guess there are several species with a black background color and red spots

Erwin Koehler Comment from Nathalie Yonow: Phyllidiopsis xishaensis is well known throughout the Indo-Pacific as Phyllidiopsis striata Bergh, 1889. This is a misnomer as Phyllidiopsis striata Bergh, 1889 is a valid species, in the genus Phyllidiella as Phyllidiella striata (Bergh, 1889) [Phyllidiopsis] and clearly different, more similar to Phyllidiella rosans.

Erwin Koehler this species http://www.nudibranch.org/Philippine%20Sea%20Slugs/html/nudibranchs/plocamopherus-imperialis-01.html looks like Plocamopherus ceylonicus (Kelaart, 1858)

Patrik Good Generation X. Thought I'll share this one too. Gold Coast Seaway; 9/10/2012; 14:01 hrs; Austraeolis ornata; size 30mm; depth 2 metres; 20 degrees water temperature; 2 metres visibility; this was the first branch species for the day. Lots of Hypselodoris obscura, beautiful Dendrodoris denisoni, including a juvenile, a few Mexichromis mariei, Ceratosoma tenue, various Goniobranchus and bubble shells, Siraius nucleola, Hypselodoris jacksoni (exciting), and a tiny Goniodoridella savignyi (new record for me and possibly the dive site).

Phil Trezise I think this is Ceratosoma tenue. Seen by Bronwyn Trezise and I at the Southport Seaway 4.5m depth, 70 mm long. We saw 5 individuals on the one dive, but as this is also listed as rare in Gary's book I am wondering if I have mis-identified this nudi?

Gary Cobb Your ID is very correct! Nice work.

Gary Cobb This species was rare but within the last 3 years it has become quite common.

Bronwyn Trezise Not for long if they build the cruise ship terminal down here.

Phil Trezise Thanks Gary, it is good to hear some species of marine life are becoming more prolific.

Patrik Good This is a very common species for the Gold Coast Seaway. It was abundant last year, disappeared after the floods in January 2012 but is now on its way back to being called abundant again. Actually, it was one of the first branchs to come back. Ceratosoma tenue can be found reliably on every dive at the Seaway again. There are smaller individuals (30mm) to normal sized ones (80mm plus) around. Unfortunately, with abundant species you tend to ignore them, just to realise after the dive that you don't even have a photo of them. Keep diving the Seaway and post your finds, please! As I am diving the Seaway a lot, I am keen to know what branchs other people find. It is relatively easy to find species that have not been documented for that dive site yet. My personal Gold Coast Seaway collection that I am building at the moment will contain more than 100 species. Check out the Gold Coast Nudibranch facebook page too. It has beautiful pictures but unfortunately is not restricted to the Seaway, nor the Gold Coast.

Blogie Robillo Ceratosoma tenue. Length abt 45mm; depth 12m @ Dayang Beach, Talikud Island.

Franca Wermuth-Vezzoli beautiful!

Blogie Robillo Ceratosoma tenue Depth 12m; length 3.5cm; Dayang Beach, 26 May 2012

Blogie Robillo Pls confirm ID: Ceratosoma tenue. Depth 9.5m; length 6cm; Dayang Beach dive site, Talikud Island, Samal, Philippines.

Gary Cobb Yes...Ceratosoma tenue Abraham,1876

Blogie Robillo Thanks Gary!

Gary Cobb My pleasure!

Patrik Good Goniodoridella sp. 1 (http://www.nudibranch.com.au/pages/9667b.htm). 9mm, 3 metres, Seaway SW Wall. Where have all the Hypselodoris obscura, Ceratosoma tenue, Chromodoris daphne/verrieri and the rest of the excessively abundant day-nudis gone? There seems to be no food source, all rotten away during the past few weeks with all fresh water instream. Now, there is one species emerging in surprising numbers and that I rarely spotted before, the Goniodoridella sp. (various sizes 8mm to 18mm). Anyone know what they are eating? Wonder how long it will take for the other nudis to be back again. The photo shows one individual saying hello to another one.

Gary Cobb Nice finds Patrik! Eminem sings....food sources they come and go...

Patrik Good :-) Thank, Gary Cobb. Food sources going for some species obviously means food source coming for other nudi species. Well, maybe the nudis were just missing the queen of the Seaway and decided to go travelling too.

Vishal Bhave Is it wide spread ? as i have specimen here from Ratnagiri !!! :D

Patrik Good Vishal Bhave, it is quite common in South East Australia. I have found it on several occasions on Old Woman Island and Southport Seaway, QLD. I have no idea how widespread they are on a global scale. Maybe some other nudi lovers have more info. Last dive this was the only species I found. Food source for other nudis have recently died with all the rain and temperature is relatively high. This nudi was abundant (more than 15) and probably busy reproducing. It would be interesting to know the reason for their appearance in numbers.

Patrik Good Hi Vishal, just realised that you must be a researcher. Are you planning to do a paper on this species? Where is the diving/collecting done in Ratnagiri? Is that Mirya creek or the open sea?

Patrik Good Scanning the Seaway again for 4 hours yesterday. Due to a lack of boat traffic (don't we love severe weather and coastal flood warnings?) I could safely dive the shallows too. The Goniodoridella sp. 1 are still everywhere (I stopped counting and taking pictures). Still no other nudi to be seen except for a tiny Chromodoris geometrica at a quite unusual spot inside a black sponge. Found a few beaten egg masses too. If anyone is diving the Seaway at night please let me know if things look different.

Vishal Bhave I have collected that in Rockpool, in Ratnagiri.

Patrik Good Just an update on these critters. They are absolutely loving the strange conditions we have at the moment. They have grown physically in size and in numbers. They are everywhere. You can see them stretching out their backflaps - it looks like they are sunbathing - and I think I even spotted two of them reproducing. All the other nudis seem to still be gone (only one egg mass found on a two hour dusk/nightdive), along with their food.

Patrik Good Update on these nudis. They are still around, some in twos but not that many and some don't look healthy any more.

Patrik Good Update on the Goniodoridella sp. at the Seaway. They were abundant, healthy looking and mating again last week. Today, I only found one individual and I can certainly say that they are not as visible any more at the moment. I wonder if their mating had been successful at all. These critters keep surprising me.

Patrik Good Update on the Goniodoridella sp. at the Seaway. They are still around, more visible again, and regularily found in numbers. They are looking healthy and some are quite big. My theory about the wing flapping is definitely falsified. Saw a wing flapping individual and no other individual on the same rock. Some individuals have brown dots on them and some have small white but clearly visible pustules/elevations.

Patrik Good Nightdive Southport Seaway 9/1/2011: Hypselodoris obscura run over by a moray eel. We used to see dozens of H. obscura, now there were only a few around. I stopped counting Chromodoris daphne/C. verrieri's (50+) and Ceratosoma tenue's (20+).

Roy Arthur David Lontoh Did you video this moment as well?

Patrik Good Now that you are asking, that would have been a good idea. Was too busy and am too used to morays. Found 19 or 20 different nudi species that dive - hopefully one or two new one's for this dive site. This night I only got videos of a Aplysia parvulla and Syphonota geographica (piggyback) and the most cryptic animal ever.

Patrick Preston II Is there an online database that lists the distinguishing characteristics for a genus or species. Often times there are only small differences that distinguish between species. Example, I always have difficulty for on-the-spot id's of Ceratosoma gracillimum, Ceratosoma trilobatum, and Ceratosoma tenue. When I find a new to me species, it takes a lot of time browsing photos of what I think it could be.

Ashley Missen Hi Patrick - that is sort of what I am working on in the Nudibase - it is just taking a lot of time and money to add all the bits I would like - also it work best if people send in there dive stats with Photos - where when how many and so on - have a look at the stats sent in by Gary Cobb and myself -cheers Ash

Gary Cobb See thread above!

Goh Diving EMPEROR'S NEW RIDE Nikon D800E LEMBEH

Ron Silver Ceratosoma tenue

Stefano Scortegagna Nice

Goh Diving Ron Silver Stefano Scortegagna Thank you guys

Marlyse Gehrig Eric .. I'm so often in speachless admiration of your shots ... !

Allen Walker Awesome image Eric!!

Goh Diving Allen Walker Thanks Allen :)

Goh Diving Marlyse Gehrig Thank you my dear friend.

Phil Trezise I think this is Ceratosoma tenue. Seen by Bronwyn Trezise and I at the Southport Seaway 4.5m depth, 70 mm long. We saw 5 individuals on the one dive, but as this is also listed as rare in Gary's book I am wondering if I have mis-identified this nudi?

Gary Cobb Your ID is very correct! Nice work.

Gary Cobb This species was rare but within the last 3 years it has become quite common.

Bronwyn Trezise Not for long if they build the cruise ship terminal down here.

Phil Trezise Thanks Gary, it is good to hear some species of marine life are becoming more prolific.

Patrik Good This is a very common species for the Gold Coast Seaway. It was abundant last year, disappeared after the floods in January 2012 but is now on its way back to being called abundant again. Actually, it was one of the first branchs to come back. Ceratosoma tenue can be found reliably on every dive at the Seaway again. There are smaller individuals (30mm) to normal sized ones (80mm plus) around. Unfortunately, with abundant species you tend to ignore them, just to realise after the dive that you don't even have a photo of them. Keep diving the Seaway and post your finds, please! As I am diving the Seaway a lot, I am keen to know what branchs other people find. It is relatively easy to find species that have not been documented for that dive site yet. My personal Gold Coast Seaway collection that I am building at the moment will contain more than 100 species. Check out the Gold Coast Nudibranch facebook page too. It has beautiful pictures but unfortunately is not restricted to the Seaway, nor the Gold Coast.

Patrik Good Actually, I found 17 opisthobranch species on this dive. Here is the problem ID: Gold Coast Seaway, Australia, depth 2 metres, size 7mm. Any help appreciated. Sorry, no clear photo. But I collected it and it clearly shows black or dark brown rhinophores.

Patrik Good Doublecounted one. Here is the list @ 16/8/2012: Aeolidiella alba (7), Bullina lineata (4), Ceratosoma tenue (1), Elysia ? (1), Goniobranchus albonares (5), Goniobranchus decorus (10), Goniobranchus cf. reticulatus (1), Goniobranchus geometricus (10), Goniodoridella sp. 1 (10), Gymnodoris alba (1), Hydatina physis (1), Hypselodoris obscura (20), Micromelo undulata (1), Noumea simplex, two colour variations (5), Thorunna sp. (2), Trinchesia yamasui (1)

Erwin Koehler I' d like to do a guess on what I see: Elysia sp.

Gary Cobb Because of the quality of the photo I would say Elysia sp. too!

Patrik Good Thank you, Erwin and Gary. Certainly not easy to ID based on this photo.

Blogie Robillo Pls confirm ID: Ceratosoma tenue. Depth 9.5m; length 6cm; Dayang Beach dive site, Talikud Island, Samal, Philippines.

Gary Cobb Yes...Ceratosoma tenue Abraham,1876

Blogie Robillo Thanks Gary!

Gary Cobb My pleasure!

Orietta Rivolta I need your help to ID I found it to Kilifi creek,Kenya Depht about 15m Lengh about 120mm 26 March 2012

Blogie Robillo I believe this is a species of Ceratosoma

Deb Aston Ceratosoma tenue juvenille, we see them a lot at the Gold Coast Seaway

Orietta Rivolta Thanks Blogie and Deb ,I've never seen it before.

Gary Cobb This is Ceratosoma trilobatum (J. E. Gray, 1827)

Orietta Rivolta Thanks Gary !

Ashley Missen I would put my money on Ceratosoma tenue - Ceratosoma trilobatum tend to be redder with red spot not yellow/orange thats Ceratosoma tenue

Blogie Robillo Although I'm not an expert, I tend to agree with Ashley here. I have a few specimen shots of C. trilobatum and they don't look like this at all...

Alistair Merrifield Also check out the purple lining on the mantle: I think tenue's one is broken, trilobatum's is continuous?

Deb Aston Tenue has 3 mantle lobes where trilobatum has one.

Gary Cobb Ok guys...C. trilobatum has two lobes on each side while C. tenue has 3 on each side. The coloration of both species can be very similar. You can't judge the two by coloration alone! It's all in the number of lobes. http://www.nudibranch.com.au/pages/4656d.htm If you look down the page you'll see a photo where the three lobes are arrowed, C. trilobatum does not have the center lobe.

Ashley Missen Hi Everyone Please Remember to send you stats and Photos to data@nudibase.com as well your post here - this way I can add them to the Database and then you can help everyone make it easier to find nudis in your area - this is important as It is the only way we can know what species are where and how many of them - Cheers and Thanks Ash

Ashley Missen Regular stats are great

Frank Wehner Will send the data tonight. ;-)

Ken Thongpila I will send Nelson Bay nudi hunts trip last week soon Ashley :-) Nothing special :-( no new species but good hunts....

Ashley Missen Thanks Ken Thongpila and Frank Wehner - I will keepading as fast as I can - Soon I will have a Data entry form on the Website

Patrik Good Ashley, I have got an issue with my stats. We normally got a few larger species that are almost epidemic at certain times in the dive sites around here (Chromodoris daphne, Ceratosoma tenue, used to be Hypselodoris obscura, Phyllidia's, Chromodoris splendida's, even Sagaminopteron ornatum etc. up north, Gymnodoris alba south). I normally photograph a few ones but then am losing interest as I am trying to find new nudi species and not researching a particular area thoroughly (this wouldn't be possible in our dive site due to environmental conditions anyhow). I know this sounds careless. We find so many different species here in one dive that it doesn't make sense and in my view it isn't feasible for me to count them all. So, if the data are for scientific purposes they won't be useable. Also, sometimes data from different divers in the same dive overlap (but often to a surprisingly low degree). Last night, I saw probably around 300 nudis but only 20 different species (hopefully 5 new ones for the dive site). I think most branchers go for new species and are less concerned about numbers. I am not sure if they share my issue and are overwhelmed with stats at times. So, question: how important are numbers? Should I resort to estimating or would you prefer having only numbers when they are accurate? As I am setting up my stats atm I'll probably have categories of 1, 2-4, 5-10, 20 to about 50, 50+ A similar issue I have got with their size. I normally estimate. We often find Ceratosoma tenue of various sizes. As they are very frequent the size data will be lost. By the way, is photographic evidence absolutely required? I reckon there are nudibranchers out there who don't have a camera available. My photos are sometimes just really bad. So, the question is if I should include those. I am pretty sure I am overwhelming you here, Ash. But I do it rather in the group. I am interested how other branchers are feeling about and handling their stats. And especially, how you want your stats.

Ashley Missen I am happy to get any data and est. on common species is ok as the regularity of the stats will this as the database is not a 100% scientific we can allow for some generalness my philosophy is some data is better than none. For example if someone sends in a photo with min data we can still say that there was at least 1 of that species at that site on that day. Hope this helps. Cheers Ash

Patrik Good Thanks, that helps. What's your preferred picture size, format?

Ashley Missen jpeg 1000 pixels on long side - Cheers and Thanks Ash

Louis Pang

Shane Siers Reading order: Chromodoris fidelis, Chromodoris hintuanensis, Nembrotha lineolata, Glossodoris atromarginata, Chromodoris cf lochi, Flabellina rubrolineata, Hypselodoris infucata, Gymnodoris aurita and Ceratosoma tenue! All beauties, Louis! I'll be back in Anilao in June, can't wait.

Louis Pang so informative. Shane Siers Thanks.

Louis Pang This photo is published on Asia Geographic Magaine No 98. Issue 5/2013 ^_^ http://shop.asiangeographic.org/magazine-single-issues/160-asian-geographic-no-98-issue-52013.html