Please help me ID this...thing.

[burna]

I haven't posted in this part of the forum before so I'll follow Rick's suggestions to help with a possible ID.

(1) How big is the critter?
Roughly 15cm long and 10 cm diameter. It had a hole in the point on the right hand side.

(2) Where in the world is the critter?
Rye, Victoria, Australia. (Summer, water temp 19C)

(3) What sort of habitat (reef, wreck, sand, rubble etc) is the critter in?
Dug it out of the sand. I decided to dig up one of these little holes the pump sand out like a volcano to see what was down there.

I tried digging up another one but couldn't find the same weird thing, so I don't know if it was this that was pumping out the sand.

(4) How deep is the critter?
About 4 metres.

(5) What time of day (or night) did you see the critter?
It was daytime, but buried under about 30cm of sand.

(6) Any observed behavior of the critter...
None.

I have seen these very long whitish coloured flat worms with dark coloured spots coming out of similar holes in the sand and wondered if this was what they lived in??

Anyone have any ideas?

Cheers.

 

[HBDiveGirl]

This is definitely a sea cucumber, which is an echinoderm.

Our California sweet potato sea cucumbers are Caudina arenicola, but YCMV (Your cucs may vary.)

They are usually buried, but we sometimes see them rolling about on the sandy bottom.
They contract to potato shape when out of the sand.
Under the sand, the textbooks say the extend to the normal shape of other sea cucumbers.

Aren't they fun to find?

~~~
Claudette

 

[Diving Italy]

This is definitely a sea cucumber, which is an echinoderm.

Does that mean it's squishy? It looks like a shell.

 

[burna]

Thanks Claudette, I didn't know sea cucumbers lived under the sand. I'm trying to find some more info on it, I don't know if we call them something different over here??

Yes it was squishy not a shell, sorry, I typed my post in a bit of hurry and forgot to put that bit in.