a nudibranch and a seahorse

a couple of interesting creatures from today's dive at Kurnell "the leap to the steps", south of sydney.

here is a nudibranch (which should be a Ceratosoma brevicaudatum according to an earlier identification from a diveoz.com.au user)


which, by the way, is very similar to this guy


that we saw at bare island (west side) 11-Mar-2007. It is a long way from bare island to Kurnell (if you are a nudibranch).

Also here is an interesting (beer-belly) seahorse.


Is this a big belly seahorse (Hippocampus abdominalis)?

It does look a bit like this one and this one. Another pic of a big-belly seahorse appears on Michael McFadyen's Bare island isolated reefs page. There is also the potbelly seahorse (Hippocampus bleekeri) -for example see this page- that looks similar.

Also as i read on the web, big-belly seahorses are among the largest seahorses, growing to 30-35cm.

The one at Kurnell was indeed quite big.