Re: Ceratosoma tenue from Lembeh - with brittle-star

June 6, 2008
From: Teresa Zuberbühler


Dear Bill
I include photos of a Ceratosoma tenue with a brittle star between the gills and the "horn" on the back. I think, this is a good place to hide for such a small animal and on top it is transported from one food source to the other. I saw, you have a message with a picture of Notodoris gardineri (message #1873) where there was also a brittle star on the nudibranch.

Locality: Lembeh, 15m, Sulawesi, Indonesia, Pacific, 7. Juli 2007, Black sand. Photographer: Teresa (Zubi) Zuberbühler.

The third photo shows another animal, that likes to ride on top these nudibranchs, a Periclimenes imperator shrimp.

Greetings from Switzerland
Teresa Zubi
www.starfish.ch

webmaster@starfish.ch

Zuberbühler, T., 2008 (Jun 6) Re: Ceratosoma tenue from Lembeh - with brittle-star. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/21623

Dear Zubi,

Thanks for the photos. Concerning the brittle star. In the Notodoris example we can't really say that the brittle star was travelling on the body of the Notodoris. Some small brittle stars are often found on sponges, and in fact in one of the photos there are other brittle stars on the sponge colony which would suggest it could have crawled onto the Notodoris just because it was there. Brittle stars are detritus feeders, picking up small organic particles with the aid of mucus strings and their tube feet, so there is probably not much advantage in moving around with a nudibranch. It's possible the one on your Ceratosoma is feeding on its faecal pellets, but it could just be there by chance.

As I said in your message on Melibe [#21620], Periclimenes is found on a lot of large sea slugs. We are not sure what it feeds on, or what the advantage is for it to associate with slugs in this way.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2008 (Jun 6). Comment on Re: Ceratosoma tenue from Lembeh - with brittle-star by Teresa Zuberbühler. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/21623

Factsheet

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