Pet Mollusks - Interesting Facts about Sea Slugs
By: Rocky & Bullwinkle (our pet invertebrates)


1. The Sea Slug is a Mollusk belonging to the class
Gastropoda, in the largest class of mollusks (phylum
Mollusca), which has a little over 35,000 living species and
15,000 fossil forms to date.

2. The Sea Slug or Marine Slug has no shell at all, unlike
its land dwelling cousins the land slugs and snails.

3. Sea Slug adults are very brightly colored and beautiful
to behold. You can find a Sea Slug species in any color of
the rainbow you might like, and many change colors according
to the food they eat.

4. The largest number and kinds of marine slugs can be found
in tropical waters like around the Caribbean Islands.
However they are also found in nearly all the oceans and
seas of the world.

5. Unlike the sea snails, salt water slugs do not have to
cling to rocks or vegetation. They can often be found
crawling along the bottom of the ocean just below the low
tide line or clinging to and eating undersea vegetation. A
few salt water slugs actually swim along the surface of the
ocean.

6. The Sea Cucumber, often called Sea Slug as well, and
popular in Chinese cuisine, is actually a very different
animal.

7. Sea slugs have been found up to a meter long (3.28 feet).
Most are under an inch long (two to three centimeters), and
some are so small that they can crawl between grains of
sand.

8. Marine slugs are regarded by many to be some of the most
beautiful creatures found in and among reefs. They often are
brightly colored with varied patterns and contrasting
colors.

9. Some salt water slugs have bright contrastingly colored
feathery structures call ceratia on their back and sides,
but not all sea slugs have these appendages.

10. Most marine slugs have two pairs of tentacles on their
heads much like their cousins the snails. The tentacles are
used for touch and smell, and there is a small eye at the
base of each of the tentacles.

11. Sea slugs eat small stationary animals that attach
themselves to reefs, rocks or plants. Sponges, bryozoans and
coelenterates are examples of some of the sea snail's
snacks. Some sea slugs feed on sea anemones and on corals.
They eat the poisonous stinging cells which then go thorough
the slug's digestive tract to the fronds on their backs and
sides (ceratia), turning their prey's defenses into the
slug's own defense.


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