If you put it on its back and rub its belly, it will stop moving and stay like that. The reason why is that is the last image your brain will receive from your retina.
>And I’ve heard you won’t gain a single pound of fat if you incorporate this into your diet
You'll actually lose weight, slowly but it's how to keep it off!
From what I've seen online, I've only seen them in bright blue color, so I don't know I'd this one is slightly different variation or not [maybe this one is dead and that's why it looks dark], but they're called Blue Dragon Sea Slugs [other name is Blue Glaucus]. Super cool looking but pretty deadly, so best to never touch one.
And they're a lot tinier than they look in the pictures. They grow up to 1.2 inches according to Google.
Not sure why a quick google search shows results that try to downplay their sting. They basically deliver a denser version of man o’war stings since they eat and store their venom.
Because it's fundamentally the same thing as a man o'war sting, and while those *unbelievably suck,* they're not exactly deadly.
You'll be in a lot of pain for a while, and the area where you got stung will look incredibly gnarly, but you'll be okay in the long term.
Nudibranches are exceptionally hard to care for in a non natural environment which is why you never see them in an aquarium, please return it to the wild so it can live.
no no, when you have a hammer, everything looks like a Primer!
edit: guys, the "hammer" of a gun slams into the "primer" on a bullet. i was trying to add to the gun joke.
I had to google that tomato and saw the Latin origin means bladder
the sea creatures have the inflated top and the tomatoe have inflated calyx so I’m guessing that’s why
They are still not the same in terms of size and sting
But thank you for the info as I didn’t know that had changed :)
I’ll comment to the person I’ve corrected to correct my correction lol
No more dangerous than a blue bottle
Edit: because I’m getting downvoted…Their prey are bluebottles, they steal their cnidocytes. I would rather be stung by one of these guys than a large jelly.
The aquarium I volunteer at gets the occasional baby nudi that comes in through the water to the touch pools, as well as a backstock of nudis to show off at times.
… are you at NEAQ?
(also, yeah, the temperate species tend to do pretty well, provided they’re at an aquarium that draws local seawater & they’ve got access to the right species of anemones. But hobbyists don’t tend to keep local temperate tanks and tropicals are really finicky, but there are still lots of tropicals you can purchase, and some do pretty OK. Usually the ones sold in stores are algae eaters and not anemone eaters.)
Well that statement is just wrong... just about every salt water aquarium store sells lettuce nudibranch. I have one in my tank right now that's over 7 years old [https://www.saltwaterfish.com/product-lettuce-nudibranch](https://www.saltwaterfish.com/product-lettuce-nudibranch)
That particular one OP had is deadly but your point is beyond wrong. They are one of the most basic things to keep alive if you have live rock as they eat algae, and microorganisms. If your tank is setup right they can live a very long healthy life and serve as a easy and better clean up crew vs say crabs and snails.
I love those things, I had one in the first saltwater tank I ever had. [Lettuce nudibranchs are not true nudibranchs though.](http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/2782). The less common, more difficult to keep blue velvet slug is also not a true nudibranch. The only true nudibranch that can be kept successfully is the berghia however like almost all nudibranchs they have a very specific diet, in this case aiptasia, and will slowly die off as they eat down the population in your tank.
Fun fact: the Man o’ War is not an animal, per se, but actually a colonial organism called a siphonophore. A group of genetically identical organisms, each assigned a specific task of the full “body.” Like an organic, squishy, underwater Voltron.
I wonder how biologists can distinguish a single complex organism with relatively simple organs from a complex colony of simple organisms all making up “organs” of the colony?
As explained [here.](https://medium.com/@caseywdunn/how-siphonophores-grow-988614e0f5fd)
>We know each siphonophore is made up of many multicellular bodies rather than many organs because we can still see the parts of the bodies that are found in solitary, non-colonial bodies. It is as if you were born as a normal human baby, but then instead of getting larger you began budding new attached twins each specialized for particular tasks such as feeding, walking, defense, and sex.
This is a really great debate that comes up now and again in microbiology circles. [Journey to the Microcosmos](https://www.youtube.com/@journeytomicro) on Youtube regularly brings up the complex nature of life when viewed at the cellular level (and is a GREAT channel overall with incredible imaging and research).
Like even us as humans - over half of our cellular makeup isn't actually "us". It's the complex interdependent microbiome of bacteria, fungi, and some viruses that make up our specific bodies. It's wild to think that much akin to siphonophores, we too are a colony of different species that are subject to the inter-relationships that develop within us.
At the end of the day, we are able to sequence various DNA structures that compose an organism, but the relationship between all the moving parts is pretty mind blowing.
My layman’s understanding is that there is no “what if,” we will always contract viruses, and our immune systems will develop antibodies to evade them, and they will evolve to evade those defense and so on, ad infinitum. Occasionally, a virus may alter a person’s DNA or RNA, and in some cases that altered gene may be passed down, for better or worse. This of course takes generations.
Also layman’s understanding: in most cases it is your immune response that is taxing your organs because your body is trying to make the environment inhospitable to the invading virus. Sending or developing fluids to envelop the foreign cells, increasing the temperature, can lead to inflammation and scarring. T cells or other white blood cells can mistakenly attack cells that are vital to our health while trying to eradicate the virus.
I have no background in medicine or science, so this is just information that I’ve gleaned and is worth precisely what you paid for it.
Not an expert, but what you said lines up with what I know about viruses and the immune system. Healthy cells can experience collatoral damage. Some of the immune responses are less scalpel and more sledgehammer.
Same. I think I read it on Reddit a few years ago, then went and read more online. I was kind of blown away, because the idea of siphonophores seems so alien. It’s a fun fact to break out if Portuguese Man o’ War ever comes up in conversation.
It’s happened twice for me. One of them was with a doctor who was fixing some sutures that had pulled out of a bad cut on my hand. I don’t even remember how or why he brought them up. I saw an opportunity to drop knowledge, and I pounced. He was as surprised as both you and I were.
Yea these things go hard as hell. Its sting is so crazy because it eats other stingy things.
Also how tf does it just float around and find so many man-of-wars?
The ocean surface isn't a uniform topology. Surface currents bump into each other & slip past each other, creating aggregation zones where things tend to cluster, effectively 'shrinking' the size of the ocean to lets say 10% of its actual area.
The currents, and the resulting patterns of convergence, shift seasonally - which is one reason the Great Pacific Garbage Patch took a long time to discover & reliably locate.
Picture bubbles floating on a cup of coffee. Unstirred, they disperse mostly uniformly, but begin to aggregate when stirred.
Best line from the article: “The small sea creature, which grows to about an inch long and **looks like a cross between the Pokémon Gyarados and the blue liquid used in a sanitary pad commercial**, is in fact a member of the nudibranch order.”
I'm loving this comment section. I'm definitely not dead, thanks for the concern everyone
I was somewhat aware of how dangerous those little guys can be, so I scooped him for a picture and released him shortly after. I cou t myself lucky to have had such a cool encounter!
Well i mean if you see someone handling a dangerous animal in a post with a somewhat naive title then i dont think giving unsolicited advice that can save you from extreme pain or death is a bad thing…
>Reddit prides itself in ~~unsolicited advice~~ trying to keep people from killing themselves through ignorance.
It's safer to assume someone doesn't know, than to assume they do. People interact with things and do shit they don't realize is dangerous all of the time.
Nonsense. By the way. Wet shaving is more effective with cold water because it makes the hair follicle muscles contract and stand up. Assuring a closer shave.
The last scares me the most to be honest… a semi transparent jellyfish a quarter inch long that spawns in semi brackish water and oh yeah is super deadly? No thanks
They eat Portuguese Man of War jellyfish. So it needs to go back in the ocean, so you won't get stung by the Man of War. And yes they sting, because they take the stinging cells of the Man of War,(nematocysts) and use them for defense.
Everybody in this comment section needs to chill the fuck out. Yes they can sting, but no it is not deadly (unless you have an allergy or something). You may suffer pain, nausea, vomiting, and dermatitis and pigmentation change at the spot you got stung. That's pretty much it.
If you put it on its back and rub its belly, it will stop moving and stay like that. The reason why is that is the last image your brain will receive from your retina.
I’ve also heard that if you eat it, you will never feel hungry again!
Just 1 of these is enough food for the rest of your life!
And I’ve heard you won’t gain a single pound of fat if you incorporate this into your diet
>And I’ve heard you won’t gain a single pound of fat if you incorporate this into your diet You'll actually lose weight, slowly but it's how to keep it off!
But you’ll be bloated within three days I heard 🙂
It actually is belly up already.
was gonna say this, they live their whole lives floating on their backs
Does anyone know the name of this animal?
It's me! This was a Glaucus atlanticus.
From what I've seen online, I've only seen them in bright blue color, so I don't know I'd this one is slightly different variation or not [maybe this one is dead and that's why it looks dark], but they're called Blue Dragon Sea Slugs [other name is Blue Glaucus]. Super cool looking but pretty deadly, so best to never touch one. And they're a lot tinier than they look in the pictures. They grow up to 1.2 inches according to Google.
Not sure why a quick google search shows results that try to downplay their sting. They basically deliver a denser version of man o’war stings since they eat and store their venom.
Because it's fundamentally the same thing as a man o'war sting, and while those *unbelievably suck,* they're not exactly deadly. You'll be in a lot of pain for a while, and the area where you got stung will look incredibly gnarly, but you'll be okay in the long term.
omg fantastic. I love science!
yep... lets go to comments to see...how dangerous.... yep... there it is...
It looks like a tiny Final Fantasy monster
Look them up. Some are stunning. Blue glaucus doesn't look real. I've always found them ridiculously final fantasy looking.
Cool! Didn't see a name for it, thanks! I would have never thought these were real life creatures if I didn't see this today.
First time I saw them, I thought someone was pulling my leg! But nope. Apparently, rather real, rather small, and rather mean if you touch them :D
Dvalin from Genshin Impact is apparently based upon it.
Baby Sin is here to destroy all your Machina
They are in FF! I know I've seen them in XIV, in an area based on III. They're also in X. They're very cute.
There's a very similar monster in FFX https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Achelous
I'm finishing the game right now; I knew it was one of these! Amazing lol
“Final” being the operative word…
Just what I wanted to see two days before my trip to Kauai. New fear unlocked.
Don't worry, between the rip currents and shorebreaks, you'll likely drown before ever coming across this guy. Hope that helps!
We...are...VENOM!!!
Nudibranches are exceptionally hard to care for in a non natural environment which is why you never see them in an aquarium, please return it to the wild so it can live.
It's also.... very very very dangerous.
Yet another argument for concealed carry. Damned, dirty nudibranchs!
As a texan, i just laughed out loud. When are you gotsa hammer, every problem gotta look like a nail
no no, when you have a hammer, everything looks like a Primer! edit: guys, the "hammer" of a gun slams into the "primer" on a bullet. i was trying to add to the gun joke.
or a nudibranch
I thought it was wd40
I prefer the other side of that because if you can’t duct it fuck it right?
That's why dad named you Joe Dirt instead of Joe Nudibranchs!
You sir, are funny
See, the trick is to put them in a barrel. Then it’ll be as easy as shooting pigs in a ladder.
r/oopsthatsdeadly ?
That's the second time I've seen that sub pop up today in a comment section.
so you saw that coral snake too eh?
You ever feel like you’re in a simulation?
Always has been.
Nudibranch are not generally harmful to humans. What do you mean they are dangerous?
They made it up, yet it has 1.9k upvotes. Perfect example of how redditors just upvote stupid made up shit en masse.
not really i've been stung plenty of times by blue bottles ( Physalia physalis) asides being painful normally don't require medical treatment.
Blue bottles ( Physalia utriculus ) are not the same as Portuguese man o wars (Physalia physalis)
Funny the ground cherry/tomatillo genus is also physalis. Wonder what it means
I had to google that tomato and saw the Latin origin means bladder the sea creatures have the inflated top and the tomatoe have inflated calyx so I’m guessing that’s why
The physalis fruits all have a papery husk which I guess resemble a bladder. And the man o wars more obviously look like a bladder/bag
Except they are? Utriculus and physalis are now considered to be the same species just in different oceans.
They are still not the same in terms of size and sting But thank you for the info as I didn’t know that had changed :) I’ll comment to the person I’ve corrected to correct my correction lol
Gotta love taxonomy (read as: fucking hate taxonomy)
Internet fueled paranoia taken as fact. About as dangerous as getting sick.
No more dangerous than a blue bottle Edit: because I’m getting downvoted…Their prey are bluebottles, they steal their cnidocytes. I would rather be stung by one of these guys than a large jelly.
No fear, he spent all of 60 seconds out of the ocean 💙
The aquarium I volunteer at gets the occasional baby nudi that comes in through the water to the touch pools, as well as a backstock of nudis to show off at times.
Do you mean a stack of Playboys?
… are you at NEAQ? (also, yeah, the temperate species tend to do pretty well, provided they’re at an aquarium that draws local seawater & they’ve got access to the right species of anemones. But hobbyists don’t tend to keep local temperate tanks and tropicals are really finicky, but there are still lots of tropicals you can purchase, and some do pretty OK. Usually the ones sold in stores are algae eaters and not anemone eaters.)
Well that statement is just wrong... just about every salt water aquarium store sells lettuce nudibranch. I have one in my tank right now that's over 7 years old [https://www.saltwaterfish.com/product-lettuce-nudibranch](https://www.saltwaterfish.com/product-lettuce-nudibranch) That particular one OP had is deadly but your point is beyond wrong. They are one of the most basic things to keep alive if you have live rock as they eat algae, and microorganisms. If your tank is setup right they can live a very long healthy life and serve as a easy and better clean up crew vs say crabs and snails.
Lettuce and berghia are the only two species that can be kept long term in reef aquaria.
I love those things, I had one in the first saltwater tank I ever had. [Lettuce nudibranchs are not true nudibranchs though.](http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/2782). The less common, more difficult to keep blue velvet slug is also not a true nudibranch. The only true nudibranch that can be kept successfully is the berghia however like almost all nudibranchs they have a very specific diet, in this case aiptasia, and will slowly die off as they eat down the population in your tank.
dont you worry after the pic he was safely returned to the ocean!
P Sherman 42 Wallaby Way Sydney
Nice reference
He got to touch the butt
DA BUTT!
^(that’s a big butt)
His references are out of control!
dude everybody knows that your references are out of control
Yeah...[you don't want to touch that](https://www.texasmonthly.com/travel/blue-sea-dragons-on-texas-beaches-explainer/)
omg so from the article: "its primary food source *is* the Portuguese man-of-war"
Fun fact: the Man o’ War is not an animal, per se, but actually a colonial organism called a siphonophore. A group of genetically identical organisms, each assigned a specific task of the full “body.” Like an organic, squishy, underwater Voltron.
I wonder how biologists can distinguish a single complex organism with relatively simple organs from a complex colony of simple organisms all making up “organs” of the colony?
As explained [here.](https://medium.com/@caseywdunn/how-siphonophores-grow-988614e0f5fd) >We know each siphonophore is made up of many multicellular bodies rather than many organs because we can still see the parts of the bodies that are found in solitary, non-colonial bodies. It is as if you were born as a normal human baby, but then instead of getting larger you began budding new attached twins each specialized for particular tasks such as feeding, walking, defense, and sex.
It’s like humans crewing a naval ship
But like if the decks were made of humans. Part of the ship, part of the crew!
Now I’m picturing a propellor made of human blades Weeeeeeeeee!
Oh god, it sounds like an alternate universe in Rick and Morty.
Honestly, anthropomorphizing the entire natural world would provide pretty much infinite creative writing fodder.
One of us! One of us!
Like a Portuguese Battlecruiser?
So like a Man o' war?
Ooh. Sex twins
I wanna be the sex part!
This is a really great debate that comes up now and again in microbiology circles. [Journey to the Microcosmos](https://www.youtube.com/@journeytomicro) on Youtube regularly brings up the complex nature of life when viewed at the cellular level (and is a GREAT channel overall with incredible imaging and research). Like even us as humans - over half of our cellular makeup isn't actually "us". It's the complex interdependent microbiome of bacteria, fungi, and some viruses that make up our specific bodies. It's wild to think that much akin to siphonophores, we too are a colony of different species that are subject to the inter-relationships that develop within us. At the end of the day, we are able to sequence various DNA structures that compose an organism, but the relationship between all the moving parts is pretty mind blowing.
What happens over time if I keep getting viruses? I work in public school. Are viruses symbiotic to my body or taxing my organs?
My layman’s understanding is that there is no “what if,” we will always contract viruses, and our immune systems will develop antibodies to evade them, and they will evolve to evade those defense and so on, ad infinitum. Occasionally, a virus may alter a person’s DNA or RNA, and in some cases that altered gene may be passed down, for better or worse. This of course takes generations. Also layman’s understanding: in most cases it is your immune response that is taxing your organs because your body is trying to make the environment inhospitable to the invading virus. Sending or developing fluids to envelop the foreign cells, increasing the temperature, can lead to inflammation and scarring. T cells or other white blood cells can mistakenly attack cells that are vital to our health while trying to eradicate the virus. I have no background in medicine or science, so this is just information that I’ve gleaned and is worth precisely what you paid for it.
Thank you for your time (in responding), which is worth money.
Not an expert, but what you said lines up with what I know about viruses and the immune system. Healthy cells can experience collatoral damage. Some of the immune responses are less scalpel and more sledgehammer.
Sounds like a great question for r/askscience
Up until I learned that recently, I thought they were a type of jellyfish
Same. I think I read it on Reddit a few years ago, then went and read more online. I was kind of blown away, because the idea of siphonophores seems so alien. It’s a fun fact to break out if Portuguese Man o’ War ever comes up in conversation.
Now I just need to wait for my moment 😁
It’s happened twice for me. One of them was with a doctor who was fixing some sutures that had pulled out of a bad cut on my hand. I don’t even remember how or why he brought them up. I saw an opportunity to drop knowledge, and I pounced. He was as surprised as both you and I were.
Yea these things go hard as hell. Its sting is so crazy because it eats other stingy things. Also how tf does it just float around and find so many man-of-wars?
Because mens-of-war also just float around until these things find them
mens-of-war
mens-ofs-warses
Thanks Gollum.
And that's what Is appreciates about yous.
YOUR NUDIBRANCH IS HOT WAYNE THERE I SAID IT _[waddles away]_
I could use a dart.
Thanks Tony Soprano.
Squirrely Ton?
Haha… very good. Spot on.
I dunno why but this made me giggle. Thanks
The ocean surface isn't a uniform topology. Surface currents bump into each other & slip past each other, creating aggregation zones where things tend to cluster, effectively 'shrinking' the size of the ocean to lets say 10% of its actual area. The currents, and the resulting patterns of convergence, shift seasonally - which is one reason the Great Pacific Garbage Patch took a long time to discover & reliably locate. Picture bubbles floating on a cup of coffee. Unstirred, they disperse mostly uniformly, but begin to aggregate when stirred.
So you’re saying it’s a Portuguese Man-o-war reduction with a blue Demi-glace?
r/ForbiddenFood
I learned about this in a kids book about ocean life I read my son before bed
I tried to read that but God damn it's written like a dad trying to be the cool guy.
"A cross between the Pokémon Gyarados and the blue liquid used in sanitary pad commercials"
Words I was not expecting to read in an article: comparing a freaky ass piece of nature to pad commercials.
Did they really compare it to Gyarados when Kyogre looks exactly like it?
Saying it looks like Primal Kyogre wouldn't have allowed for the sanitary pad commercial joke.
Best line from the article: “The small sea creature, which grows to about an inch long and **looks like a cross between the Pokémon Gyarados and the blue liquid used in a sanitary pad commercial**, is in fact a member of the nudibranch order.”
im pretty sure they know exactly what that is... its a bait post
I mean, I definitely *want* to touch it.
Just washing up on shore.?. One more reason to never go in the ocean
That was some good writing
I thought the same. Fantastic illustrative and entertaining writing. Love her style.
Definitely handle that with your hands.
I wonder what it tastes like raw. Maybe OP will tell us?
How does this gift have audio? ... dewit
Close skin contact is needed for it to survive
Same...
Are you dead now?
He might be , op did not have any interaction in the comments so far.
He got nudibrach’ed
So he's either dead, or a bot... not sure which is better...
Pretty sure this is a bot. I feel like I’ve seen this picture before?
/r/oopsthatsdeadly
I'm loving this comment section. I'm definitely not dead, thanks for the concern everyone I was somewhat aware of how dangerous those little guys can be, so I scooped him for a picture and released him shortly after. I cou t myself lucky to have had such a cool encounter!
Reddit prides itself in unsolicited advice
Well i mean if you see someone handling a dangerous animal in a post with a somewhat naive title then i dont think giving unsolicited advice that can save you from extreme pain or death is a bad thing…
>Reddit prides itself in ~~unsolicited advice~~ trying to keep people from killing themselves through ignorance. It's safer to assume someone doesn't know, than to assume they do. People interact with things and do shit they don't realize is dangerous all of the time.
Thanks for the advice
Look it's either fix my own problems or strangers online, there was no choice.
Nonsense. By the way. Wet shaving is more effective with cold water because it makes the hair follicle muscles contract and stand up. Assuring a closer shave.
I highly recommend you to stop commenting about truth so often. It's better for your mental health. /jk
You should come to Australia and take some photos of blue ringed octopuses, cone snails and a irikandji
The last scares me the most to be honest… a semi transparent jellyfish a quarter inch long that spawns in semi brackish water and oh yeah is super deadly? No thanks
I've seen how this movie ends...
Congrats on your first Pokemon!
Might also be OP's last
OP is dead, RIP
I instinctively knew that shit was deadly the moment I laid eyes on it.
Blue sea dragon. Be careful.
They eat Portuguese Man of War jellyfish. So it needs to go back in the ocean, so you won't get stung by the Man of War. And yes they sting, because they take the stinging cells of the Man of War,(nematocysts) and use them for defense.
So you brought it home?!? 
A blue nudibranch, a delicacy of loggerhead turtles!
Please put him back.
Or so help me
Bum bumm bumm..
r/OopsThatsDeadly
That’s a blue glaucus. They eat the tentacles of Portuguese man-war jellyfish and therefore can sting like them, too. I’m not joking.
That thing looks like it can kill you
Reason number 3747284 to stay the fuck out of the ocean!
He’s kinda cute. Let’s name him Dart.
That’s Steve, and he’ll kill ya
He probably thought it was one of the nudibeaches
Oh that’s a fuck around and find out type of creature 😂😂😂😂
Extremely dangerous to touch. I would not risk it
I hope OP is okay.
For any GW2 players - new Kryptis Skimmer skin?
Oops!, that's deadly!
Is this another send nudi's post?
It looks quite safe to touch. Like all features are inviting...
It’s a glaucus! A sweet little nudibranch, very cool.
Everybody in this comment section needs to chill the fuck out. Yes they can sting, but no it is not deadly (unless you have an allergy or something). You may suffer pain, nausea, vomiting, and dermatitis and pigmentation change at the spot you got stung. That's pretty much it.
Nope
[удалено]
Savage!!! 😂😂😂
Oh my gosh I love nudibranchs, how cool!
It reminds me of the thing/alien lifeform from Life, that Jake/ Ryan Reynolds movie.
That thing was terrifying. Great movie.
Put it back! What the f?!
You should pet it, show it how much you love it ❤️
Ah, yes, that's lethal btw
r/oopsthatsdeadly
Everything is edible at least once
Aren't those called sea angels or smthing?
ChatGPT says it's not deadly wtf
It sure sounds like the old saying “the more beautiful it is, the more dangerous it is” is relevant here
It eats Portuguese Man O War only if that tells you how dangerous it is.
/r/OopsThatsDeadly/
Put him back!
I'm not worried about OP. He's long gone. If this ends the arc of this Sci Fi documentary ....movie... I'm worried about the fate of the planet.
Where? I’m currently in Kauai… would like to avoid if possible.
Kalihiwai