Range: Coastal, tropical and temperate marine waters around the world

Habitat: Algae beds

Size: 1 inch (2.54cm) in length

Diet: Algae

Threats: Parasitic copepods which may be gotten rid of through head autotomy

Lifespan: Unknown

Transcript:

Today on Animal Fact Files we’re discussing solar powered sea slugs. There are currently around 300 living, classified species in the solar powered sea slug order though new information could change this. Their classification is debated. These small marine gastropods live in tropical and temperate coastal marine waters around the world. They are most diverse around the equator and their populations drop the closer they live to the poles. Solar powered sea slugs get this mouthful of a common name because they use algae to live. They eat algae with a suction-like feeding strategy. They have a single row of teeth on their radula, or scraping mouthparts, that facilitates this feeding behavior. Basically, they suck up the algae fluids and digest them. This gives them their other common name, sap-sucking sea slugs!

Though they eat algae to live, something that stands out is that they don’t digest the algae chloroplasts. Chloroplasts are the organelles responsible for photosynthesis. What happens is the solar powered sea slug avoids digesting the chloroplasts and instead incorporates them into its own body where they continue to function! Now, not all members of this order have this ability. Some can store algae chloroplasts and survive off them for months, others can only keep them functional for a few weeks, and others aren't able to utilize them at all. For those that can utilize this feeding method, if food becomes scarce, the slug can survive off the photosynthetic properties of the chloroplasts which provide the slugs with nutrition. These are some of the only animals known to do this! It's not fully understood how this works and its mechanics are debated in the scientific community, but, for lay-people like us, it basically means these animals can survive off sunshine, which I would happily do if I could, even if it turned my skin green!

Green is how many solar powered sea slugs appear thanks to the algae chloroplasts in their bodies. This also helps to camouflage them in their environment. Many solar powered sea slugs only reach about an inch (2.54cm) in length. Their tiny stature combined with their green appearance makes them nearly undetectable in their algae home. Solar powered sea slugs inhabit areas with algae including reefs and seagrass beds. Not all the algae they eat is green, of course. They also take red algae and brown algae and some sources list a few species as predatory!

Some solar powered sea slugs have shells and some do not. Like sea angels, some may begin life with a shell but then lose it as they mature to adulthood. An amazing note on some of these animals is that they're bivalve gastropods! They have two shells! This is otherwise unknown in gastropod animals and, in fact, fossilized bivalve solar powered sea slugs were believed to be actual bivalves, like oysters or clams, until they were seen alive! Like sea hares, some species have parapodia they use to swim in the water column. Like sea hares, though they may be called sea slugs, these solar powered gastropods are not nudibranchs.

In lab settings, solar powered sea slugs have been observed, on rare occasions, to decapitate themselves! Like flatworms who can regenerate from detached body pieces, the decapitated heads were able to regenerate a new body within a month’s time! The lost bodies, however, did not regenerate a new head.

For more facts on solar power sea slugs, check out the links below. Give a thumbs up if you learned something new today. Thank you to our Patrons SpikeSpiegel93, Dad, and everyone else for their support of this channel! Thank you to these viewers for today’s request! And thank you for watching Animal Fact Files!