Spanish Dancer

The Spanish dancer is a large, vividly colored sea slug, a type of nudibranch, found on reefs throughout the Indo-Pacific and Red Sea. When disturbed, it can detach from the seafloor and swim by rippling the wide, frilled edges of its body up and down, a flowing motion that resembles a flamenco dancer's swirling skirt and gives the species its common name. Its bright red and white coloring warns predators of the unpalatable or toxic chemicals it sequesters from the sponges it feeds on.