Three Table Bay nudibranchs
A Table Bay nudibranch crawling over a rock - it was deliberately moved from the algae to the rock in order to see the animal a bit better. Note the transparent cerata.
A single Table Bay nudibranch on the algae.
All photos Guido Zsilavecz
This nudibranch, named "Table Bay" because it was first found there, although it has been seen elsewhere as well (including Buffels Bay, in the Cape Point Nature Reserve.) It is not common, and the few SURG co-founder Guido has seen were at Oudekraal and a single one in shallow water at Llandudno. Further searches in that area revealed none. At Long Beach a whole group of maybe a dozen, if not more, were found. They were all on filamentous simple green algae (Cladophora sp.) As with the sighting at Oudekraal, where they were on similar algae, they were so intertwined within the branches that it was hard to see what the animal looked like, so an individual was carefully removed and placed on the rock the algae was growing on, revealing the details.
Gosliner's guide states that this species has been found on other algae as well, in tidal pools and estuaries. The area at Long Beach where it was found was only about 5m deep.
For further details on this and other nudibranchs, see "Nudibranchs of the Cape Peninsula and False Bay", available directly from SURG and better dive shops and books stores in Cape Town.
Nudibranchs of the Cape Peninsula and False Bay, G Zsilavecz, 2007
Nudibranchs of Southern Africa - a guide to the opisthobranch molluscs of southern Africa, T Gosliner, 1987.