13/07/2026
🌊 Marine Monday | Phyllodesmium spp. 🐚
This photograph tells only part of the story.
While this frame captures three Phyllodesmium nudibranchs, just outside the edge of the photograph were five more, all gathered around a feast that had attracted quite the crowd—a freshly laid Spanish Dancer (Hexabranchus) egg ribbon.
For a tiny nudibranch, an egg ribbon is an irresistible buffet. Instead of slowly searching the reef for food, these opportunistic feeders had congregated to take advantage of a nutrient-rich meal. It was fascinating to watch, with individuals of different sizes and colour forms feeding side by side, each carefully navigating over the spiralled egg mass.
Members of the genus Phyllodesmium are among the ocean’s most remarkable nudibranchs. Their fleshy, finger-like cerata allow them to blend seamlessly with the soft corals they usually inhabit, making them masters of camouflage. Many species are also capable of retaining the microscopic symbiotic algae from the corals they consume, allowing the algae to continue photosynthesising within their own tissues—an extraordinary adaptation rarely seen in the animal kingdom.
Finding a single Phyllodesmium is always exciting. Finding eight on one dive, all sharing the same unexpected meal, is the kind of encounter that reminds you why slowing down underwater is so rewarding. Sometimes the biggest spectacles on a dive aren’t sharks or manta rays—they’re just a few centimetres long, quietly going about their lives on the reef.
📍 Neil Island (Shaheed Dweep), Andaman Islands, India
Every dive has a story. Sometimes, all it takes is looking a little closer.
