A centimetre of white fur with two black ears, and the internet did the rest.
A small dorid, usually about 1 cm and rarely above 2, cream to pale yellow or orange with scattered black spots, and covered in dense caryophyllidia that read at photographic magnification as fur. Two dark rhinophores stand at the front like ears and the gill plume sits at the back like a tail. The resemblance to a rabbit is entirely accidental and entirely convincing.
It became one of the most widely circulated marine animals on the internet in 2015, which is worth knowing mainly because most of what circulated with it was wrong: it is not fluffy, the “fur” is a field of rigid spicule-tipped papillae, and the “ears” are chemosensory organs. Feeds on sponges. At a centimetre it is a genuine find rather than a common one, and it is usually shown by a guide who has just spent five minutes on one patch of sponge. Recorded from about 3 to 25 m.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.
