The coolest sea slug in the world!!!

Bongo Shrimp

Bongo Shrimp

P. ceratophthalma
It can't swim and is carried by currents of the ocean. They have nematocysts and can sting like jellyfish. Although not really practical for the home aquarium because well it can't swim, stings, and ONLY floats on the surface partially exposed to the air. Not 100% sure it can sting a human but it eats Portuguese man o war and other hydrozoans that are potentially deadly to humans.

I would pay some serious $$$ for one of these...

This is #2 in my favorite list of all time most awesome sea animals.


So WHAT IS IT?




Glaucus atlanticus
Screenshot2009-12-15at103118PM.jpg


7604b.jpg


Here is some info on Seaslugforum: The Sea Slug Forum - Glaucus atlanticus

Awesome right?
 
They can sting humans, and are bad news if they do. They are supposedly worse than being stung by a Portuguese Man O' War, and that's saying something (I have this scar on my face where a tentacle stuck to me, leaving a line of blisters). Here's another page with a report on them done by a kid for a science paper:

http://www.seaslugforum.net/message/22413

They are very cool, but apparently just about impossible to keep.

Cheers,



Don
 
It is very cool looking but you never really hear of people keeping nudibranch's alive for long.
 
They actually are very common here, and they eat man-o-war, incorporating the stinging cells of the man o war in their tissue, which is how they sting. I have held them before, and on my hands at least they are just sticky, I would not put one on a soft part of my skin, but I have even had stinging cells of man-o-war on my thumb and other fingers with out dibilitating pain. don't get me wrong, it hurt, but on the tough skin of your hands it isn't like the legs or belly where stings can be so painful that you lose conciensness. The sting of the nudi must lose some potentcy, at least the ones I have had contact with were not painful, again, I would never try to put one on skin that isn't protected with rough and tough skin.

Besides diet, the animals are palegic, floating, upside down on the surface of the ocean and following the man-o-war that they feed on, so I don't think you could provide an environment that would be easy to keep them in. Once I tried to keep a man-o-war, mostly because of the man-o-war fish that I was trying to keep. It did ok for a few weeks, but then just rotted away, after that the fish didn't do so well.
 
Phil, I think your skin must be a lot tougher than most people's. :-) That's not the typical experience!
 
LeslieH said:
Phil, I think your skin must be a lot tougher than most people's. :-) That's not the typical experience!
Click to expand...

Leslie, the first time I was collecting them I was terrified, I have heard horror stories from my dive partner who is a FL native (most of you who reads my posts knows I am native to CA and moved to FL 14 years ago), but my first experience was one caught in my net and while trying to free it, we were collecting the fish that live in and around the tenticles, a tenticle wrapped around my thumb. It was no worse then a bee sting, and never got red or swelled up, the only thing I can attribute it to is the tough skin on my hands from using them. I would not want to get stung on any part of my skin that isn't rough, my dive partner has a scar on his calf from one that stung him as a child, but I have never had one touch me anywhere but my hands. I have also been in contact with fire coral, and the only thing that it does is make my skin itch for a while. I don't think that is in the same league as man-o-war though.
 
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last year i was walking the shores of macarthut beach state park while the man of war were washing up and these guys were everywhere. i thought they were the coolest things ever. unfortunately it was a state park and i couldn't bring a sample home for study, but i guessed based on coincidence of beaching with the man of war and by coloration that the were inter related.

the websites all said that it should have stung me two....but they didn't...must have thick skin, although man of wars can stning the hell out of me
 
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