Coral reef communities are rather confusing to people who are more familiar with terrestrial ecosystems. On land, plants such as trees and bushes provide complex structures and microhabitats for a variety of animals to live in. Underwater, the complex structures providing microhabitats are built by animals such as coral and sponges.
And it is perplexing when coral reef animals are given vegetable names, such as the lettuce sea slug (today's photos). Yesteday, I was lucky enough to find one, about 2 inches long. Sea slugs are mollusks, something like nudibranchs. This one seems to blend in with the algae that it eats.
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