Spanish Dancer Nudibranch

Photo: Daniel Benák · © all rights reserved

Spanish dancers emerge on night dives as the largest and most spectacular of all nudibranchs, their brilliant scarlet and white bodies undulating through the water column in a swimming display that is unmistakably their namesake dance. Individuals up to 50cm across are common on the San Miguel wall, and they are frequently accompanied by their commensal partner shrimp clinging between the cerata. The wall's rich invertebrate community supports a wide variety of nudibranch species beyond the Spanish dancer, making night diving here productive for macro photographers.