Help ID these please

[LeslieH]

Be patient about the Sea Slug Forum. There's only one very knowledgeable guy, Bill Rudman, answering all the posts & hundreds of people sending them in.

 

[cardzard]

Well we have a POSITIVE ID from the folks on Bonaire talk. See below

It is ?????????

Piece of large colonial pelagic tunicates



Seb, I am pretty sure that Egbert is talking about the pelagic tunicates. I would agree with him, that is probably what this is. Pieces of large colonial pelagic tunicates will often break off (especially when they are being eaten by fish and become entangled on the bottom. I have also seen pieces of the pelagic tunicates ensnared by tube dwelling anemones.

Have a look at this thread over on Wetpixel. The first 2 photos there look very similar to Dennis' creature.
http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9009
http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=660


Thanks to all for your help.

 

[maractwin]

I think the folks at wetpixel have mis-identified their pictures. Those look much more like a pelagic squid egg mass then a pyrosoma. The pyrosoma is more opaque

I hadn't suggested that for your picture because yours isn't translucent the way I've always seen them pictured. Though I suppose as the mass becomes older the texture may change.

-Mark

 

[archman]

Yeah, I don't think it's a pyrosome either. I'm staring at one right now in my lab, and have handled enough fresh ones to know what they look like. I've even eaten one.

But the first pic in the wetpixel image reminds me of a open water squid egg mass. I think they're in the back of the Humann reef creatures book for a specific species. Anybody got the book handy?

 

[maractwin]

There is a picture on page 349 of Human's Reef Creatures. And one on page 178 of Norman's Cephalopods: A World Guide. These pictures seem to match what is in the wetpixel thread very well. They don't look as much like the photo at the top of this thread.

-Mark

 

[LeslieH]

I sent links for both this & the wetpixel post to Dr. James Wood, a cephalopod expert. He agreed that the WP image is the egg mass of a pelagic squid although he didn't say which one. On the other hand James didn't think that the egg mass in Cardzard's image came from a cephalopod. He suggested either tube worm or mollusc. I can rule out tube worm so we're back to maybe mollusc.
Mysteries are fun, aren't they?

 

[cardzard]

Well the plot thickens. I hope somebody will be able to tell all of us what it is ?
I still have not heard back from the sea slug forum.
I guess a picture is worth a thousand word and a bunch of questions also.
Thank you to everyone for their effort to help ID this.