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Characteristic swimming style: When the slug is disturbed or switches to swimming, its mantle rolls and ripples gracefully up and down through the water, strongly reminiscent of a flamenco dancer's flowing red dress.

Size and habitat: It is one of the largest nudibranchs in the world and is found in the warm, tropical waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans and the Red Sea.

The Spanish dancer can reach a maximum length of 60 centimeters.

Average size: Most specimens encountered by divers are between 20 and 30 centimeters long.

Exceptions: Rare sightings have been reported of outliers approaching 90 centimeters.

Defense: The bright red color serves as a warning to predators; the slug can absorb toxic substances from the sponge species it eats.

Her defense strategy works as follows:

Aposematism (warning colors): The bright red color with white patterns is not meant to be beautiful, but serves as a direct alarm signal to fish and crabs. In nature, this striking appearance means: "I am poisonous and taste terrible, leave me alone!"

Stolen venom: The snail does not produce the venom itself, but steals it. It feeds on specific poisonous sea sponges (such as the Halichondria sponge). The Spanish dancer is immune to these chemicals, absorbs the toxic substances (macrolides) during digestion, and stores them in its own tissue.

Strategic storage: It stores the highest concentration of the venom in its dorsal mantle. This is exactly the part that is most vulnerable to an external attack. If a predator tries to take a bite, it immediately tastes the bitter, toxic chemicals and spits the snail right back out.

Protection of the eggs: The Spanish dancer even transfers this stored poison to her striking, rose-shaped egg capsules. This also protects her unborn young from hungry inhabitants of the coral reef.