Slug love: Kiwi goes viral with 'Blue Dragon' sea slug

The sea slug was a massive hit online. Photo / Liam Clayton

If you want more followers on Tik Tok, film a cool-looking sea slug.

That wasn't the reason Gisborne Herald photographer Liam Clayton took a video of a blue dragon sea slug but it has gone viral on the social media platform.

On Thursday night he posted a video of the blue dragon sea slug, or glaucus atlanticus, doing a forward roll in a container of seawater at Ohope Beach, in the Eastern Bay of Plenty.

In five days it has had 6.5 million views from around the world. Liam's fan base on Tik Tok grew from fewer than 100 followers to more than 11,000.

A few of these sea slugs have been spotted at Tairawhiti beaches too. If you do come across one, do not pick them up. Their sting is reputedly worse than a sting from a bluebottle jellyfish, which these sea slugs eat for breakfast.

Liam's viral post started with a spontaneous road trip last Sunday. He saw a photographer friend of his, Wayne Feisst, post a picture on Facebook of these blue sea slugs at Ohope Beach.

"He let me know the general area he saw them."

Liam had a few hours spare, and is always up for an adventure, so he jumped in his truck with his brothers and a mate and headed through the gorge, leaving behind the fine Gizzy weather for more stormy conditions in the Eastern Bay of Plenty.

Read More

• Warning as toxic sea slugs wash up on Bay of Plenty beaches - NZ Herald
• Poisonous sea slugs: The deadly threat on our beaches - NZ Herald
• Toxic sea slugs return to Auckland beaches - NZ Herald
• Auckland's toxic sea slug problem may be spreading - NZ Herald

Once at Ohope Beach, he went down to the waterline where he saw quite a few of the blue dragon sea slugs washed up on the tideline among hundreds if not thousands of bluebottle jellyfish.

He then went to Kmart to get a plastic tub so he could observe them better through his "makeshift portable aquarium". Liam said he was very careful not to touch it, so scooped it in and out with a shell.

This glaucus atlanticus, or blue dragon sea slug, has captured a lot of attention since a video of it at Ohope Beach was taken and posted to Tik Tok. Photo / Liam Clayton

A casual post on Facebook clocked up just over 10,000 views but it was when Liam posted it to Tik Tok that he and the blue sea slug went viral.

"I hadn't used the Tik Tok app in like a year. A friend of mine shared her travel vid with me and it got me thinking, I should see how the wicked little creature would go on that platform." He added a Pokemon soundtrack.

"After a few hours it didn't look like it was going to go well as it only had four likes."

Now his video has more than 900,000 likes, and climbing. It's prompted Liam to become an active user on Tik Tok. Follow him and his spontaneous adventures @liamclaytonmedia