Re: Food of Marionia blainvillea

October 22, 2001
From: Baki Yokes


Dear Bill and Bernard,
I'm also not a sea fan expert, in fact not a marine biologist at all. But I had named this gorgonian as E. verrucosa, according to the detailed descriptions given in a university publication, concerning the marine invertebrates of Istanbul islands. The book is very well written but rather old (published in 1954). I may be wrong in identification, since I'm not an expert, or the book is out of date and should be updated, but what ever this species is, the Sea of Marmara has a very distictive characteristics which are very suitable for soft corals. It is composed of two main layers, the plankton-rich upper freshwater layer from Black Sea, and a lower, salty layer of Mediterranean water with constant temperature all throughout the year. If you go down to 25m of depth you reach the mediterranean water and also a field of soft corals with many different species that I have never seen during any of my Agean or Mediterranean dives. And in the depths of some islands that are near the Bosphorus Strait, it is possible to see these E. verrucosa? colonies on every rock. Sometimes they are in pink colur but in most of the cases they are creamy-white to light yellow. I also would be pleased if anybody identify these gorgonians.

UPPER PHOTO: Istanbul, Turkey. Divesite: Yassiada, Depth: 32m, August, 2000
Colony height: approx. 30cm
LOWER PHOTO: Istanbul, Turkey. Divesite: Sivriada, Depth: 28m, July, 2000
Colony height: approx. 25cm

I have sent a photo of a possible third form? or species? in a separate message
Thank you in advance
Best wishes
Baki

bakiyokes@turk.net

Yokes, B., 2001 (Oct 22) Re: Food of Marionia blainvillea. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/5497

Thanks Baki,
It looks like you may have more than one species of gorgonian. Hopefully someone will be able to sort them out. Once they are sorted out you will need to check just which 'species' or 'forms' Marionia blainvillea feeds on. At present your photos have shown it only on the species in your second message.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2001 (Oct 22). Comment on Re: Food of Marionia blainvillea by Baki Yokes. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/5497

Factsheet

Marionia blainvillea

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