39th edition of Marine Life monthly post. Marine Life post published every 19th of the month. It aims to share information about the marine life species and to promote their conservation. All images in this post are taken by Indah Susanti unless stated otherwise.

Nudi is a nickname for the Nudibranch and the nudibranch means “naked gill”. It is an invertebrate animal from the mollusks group that can be found anywhere in the oceans.

Bangka, Nudibranch

They are more diverse in tropical seawater like in East Timor, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand. There are more than 100 groups of Nudibranch, and Flabellina is one of them. I consider Flabellina nudibranch as a group of nudibranch that has pretty looking species. I have only seen five species of Flabellina nudibranch during my diving meanwhile there are still tens of Flabellina species out there that I have yet to find.

The most unique one is called Flabellina iodinea (Spanish Shawl). According to ThoughtCo., the nudibranch can swim in the water column by flexing its body from side to side in a u-shape.  I saw this pretty nudibranch in Indonesia, far away from Spain 😀

Flabellina Iodinea (Spanish Shawl)

The second Flabellina nudibranch that I have seen is Flabellina arveloi in Cape Verde.

Flabellina arveloi

Also found in Cape Verde, Flabellina bulbosa, a beautiful Flabellina nudibranch with white transparent body and purple by the end of its tentacles. Their lifespan in the wild is only one year.

Flabellina bulbosa

Back to South East Asia region, in the Philippines, I found my first Flabellina exoptata. It felt weird to see their face without mouth or eyes 😀

Flabellina exoptata

Lastly, also from the Philippines, Flabellina rubrolineata nudibranch is common to be found. Its transparent body and pretty tentacles are factors to identify the Flabellina nudibranch. I hope I will see the rest of Flabellina’s species in the future dives!

Flabellina rubrolineata