Nudibranches in Andaman sea...

 
I am taking you one more time underwater, as I have to show still few wet beauties:-)) In the underwater kingdom of Similan Islands one may encounter several smaller and bigger nudibranches these colourful (and sometimes so tiny to spot) creatures are fascinating for photographing due to the different shapes, lines and unexpected flashy colours. The flashiness actually indicates that they contains poison, in case some of the other water inhabitants may think of eating them. So the colours is their own protection!

 
The picture with one of my finger is to help you realise the real size...and in order to show you how funny we look when taking picture of small fellows (invisible to the rest) is the pictures of Nico+myself taken by Tim, a fellow diver and uw-photographer:-)

The underwater world in Sardinia: nudibranches

A nudibranch is a soft-bodied mollusk (= invertebrate animal) which leaves their shell after their larval stage. They are famous and loved for their often extraordinary colors and striking forms. There are more than 3,000 described species of nudibranches. The word "nudibranch" comes from the Latin nudus, naked, and the Greek brankhia, gills.

While in Sardinia we were told that nudibranches in the Mediterranean sea love cold water and when the summer start they are more rarely sighed, but we were still lucky enough to discover and see different ones:-) The biggest one is the so called in Italian "vaccheta di mare" (the white with the balk dots, literally the "sea cow"). It can reach up to 10 cm.

Most of the them are however really tiny, from 0,5 to 2-3cm. The bright and impressive colours are signal for predators that the soft body contains venom. This is also their only protection...