Then you'll remember this guy:
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| Photo courtesy of the amazing Starlette - thank you! |
And none of us knew what the heck he (or she) was?
Well it took us a while to find out and you'll never guess what the answer is....?
.....Pleurobranchus Areolatus.
(Told you.)
Fortunately for the Pleurobranchus Areolatus, it's also known as an Atlantic Sidegill Slug or a Warty Side-Gilled slug.
Whilst common to the Pacific coast of North and Central America, they're pretty rare and unusual in our neck of the woods (hence why this guy was such cause for excitement for us dive-nerds.)
According to the slugsite.us website, apparently they can reach lengths up to 150cm in California and Brazil. We're really hoping this is a typo on their website, because you wouldn't want to meet a 5ft anything on the reef, in the dark, eh?
As if three monikers were not enough for the tiny little guy photographed on The Dive Bus Curacao reef (where things are apparently / fortunately smaller than California and Brazil) he's lately become more popularly known as the Pizza Crust sea slug.
So there you go, it really was the most amazing Curacao night dive ever. We're hoping to match it during the second and final Coral spawning season of the year...
And if you don't hear from us for a while, it's because we did come across a 5ft Californian Warty Atlantic Sidegill Pizza Slug with a Brazilian accent, on a surfboard, wearing a thong.
#divebuscuracao #divecuracao #coralspawning #pizzacrustseaslug #wartysidegillslug #atlanticsidegillslug
