Splendid Goniobranch

About this species

Goniobranchus splendidus is a species of colourful sea slug, a dorid nudibranch, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Chromodorididae. The specific epithet splendida means splendid in reference to the colouring, because this nudibranch has large red spots on a white background, a yellow line at the mantle edge, and magenta rhinophores.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Goniobranchus splendidus”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 374 records
February: 152 records
March: 131 records
April: 93 records
May: 57 records
June: 86 records
July: 60 records
August: 98 records
September: 197 records
October: 265 records
November: 383 records
December: 360 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 4–21 m · Deepest record: 21 m

0–10 m: 4 records
10–20 m: 3 records
20–30 m: 2 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 19–23 °C

18–20 °C: 5 records
20–22 °C: 20 records
22–24 °C: 8 records

Photos

(c) Kai Squires, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Kai Squires, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Tim, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) neilfws, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Rosie Steinberg, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Bryce Watts-Parker, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Valentin Moser, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Splendid Goniobranch, Splendid Goniobranchus, Splendid Nudibranch

Other scientific names: Chromodoris splendida, Goniodoris splendida

Similar species

Coi's Goniobranchus
Goniobranchus coi
Collingwood's Goniobranchus
Goniobranchus collingwoodi
Daphne’s Nudibranch
Goniobranchus daphne
Goniobranchus epicurius
Fiesta Rainbow Dorid
Goniobranchus fidelis
Geometric Rainbow Dorid
Goniobranchus geometricus

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
140 open-data records from 1963 to 2026.
Species data updated November 3, 2026.