Port Phillip Bay, Victoria, Australia Spanish Shawl?? Nudibranch

[ChilledMammal]

Many Yellow/orange little soft spine-like protrusions from its back, with a purple/blue body. it was hanging onto a seaweed leaf with a small stream of slime. Very mobile and moved like a nudibranch, but was very small.

(1) How big is the critter?
12mm quite small,

(2) Where in the world is the critter?
Australia, Port Phillip bay next to Melbourne between Australia mainland and Tasmania.

(3) What sort of habitat (reef, wreck, sand, rubble etc) is the critter in?
Small leafy plant on the side of a rock wall.

(4) How deep is the critter?
11Mtrs, 14 deg Celcius

(5) What time of day (or night) did you see the critter?
2pm in the afternoon

(6) Any observed behavior of the critter...
Was sticking on to a piece of kelp with a small slime trail.

(7) If the locals have a common name for the critter, what is it?
Don't know but it looked like a Flabellinopsis iodinea (Spanish Shawl), but these seem to be bigger and I'm not sure they are found in Port Phillip Bay off the Bass straight.

 

[dannobee]

Did it look like this?

Picasa Web Albums - dannobee - Slugs, Crabs,...

 

[ChilledMammal]

Yes thanks it looked alot like that, but was very small, around a cm.

Do you know if they are normally found near the bottom of Australia, in Port Phillip Bay.