On yesterdays afternoon dive at “Nudi Falls” i spend the whole dive photographing Gobies – so i had a 100mm lens on the camera. And i really started regretting that, when reaching Safety Stop level at the end of the dive: Just below the boat was this beautiful pair of Nudibranchs mating. They were Hypselodoris iacula (Fishnet Hypselodoris or Magical Hypselodoris). The adults of this species are 5cm big – so two of them are a relatively big size to shoot with a 100m Macro. But as this type of nudibranchs is one of my favourites i still took some (ok … a lot) shots. Like many Nudibranchs their colours really pop under water – even without light or strobe.
In this picture you can see the mating process very well: The sexual Organs (genital papilla) on the upper left side in the picture are connected. Some species of Nudibranchs copulate very quickly some others take a loooong time – specially Dorid Nudibranchs (to which group also these Hypselodoris belong to). After mating the Nudibranchs will stick eggmass ribbons to rocks or algae. let’s hope their eggs will do well – because of course we would all like to see more of this colourful Nudibranch species.
Creature Feature
Creature Feature: Paper Nautilus
Blackwater Dives are all about the weird and wonderful. Strange larval fish that you haven’t seen before, little crustaceans seemingly just floating around, and hunting squids are all part of the regular sightings we get Read more…
1 Comment
Francesco De Marchi · December 23, 2011 at 10:38 am
Wonderful scene !!! My first Hypselodoris iacula was spotted exactly in the same dive site !!!
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