Weird underwater spiderweb in Roatan, Honduras

[Ocean Connections]

I'm finding these all over the reef at the moment, looks exactly like a funnel spider's web. It might be a parrotfish mucus thing but it seems to be much more intact and stable, I have seen them one day and gone back the next day andthey are still there.
About 3 inches in diameter and it seems to go far back into crack and crevices in the coral.

I've never seen anything in them, but a friend of mine says she saw a glimpse of something retreating into one. if you touch the web it's not wispy, it takes some force to break a strand.

http://www.ocean-connections.com/gallery/gallery4-15.jpg

 

[Scubakevdm]

I'm finding these all over the reef at the moment, looks exactly like a funnel spider's web. It might be a parrotfish mucus thing but it seems to be much more intact and stable, I have seen them one day and gone back the next day andthey are still there.
About 3 inches in diameter and it seems to go far back into crack and crevices in the coral.

I've never seen anything in them, but a friend of mine says she saw a glimpse of something retreating into one. if you touch the web it's not wispy, it takes some force to break a strand.

http://www.ocean-connections.com/gallery/gallery4-15.jpg

The picture is pretty small, but probably a mucus cocoon left by some sleeping fish.

 

[Ocean Connections]

heres a better pic
http://www.ocean-connections.com/Fgal...allery4-15.jpg

 

[Scubakevdm]

heres a better pic
http://www.ocean-connections.com/Fgal...allery4-15.jpg

The link got messed up.

 

[LeslieH]

that is really interesting and definitely not the remains of a fish cocoon. A lot of invertebrates spin tubes and solidify burrow walls with mucus. Some hollow out sponges & live inside them. that said, I haven't seen this particular structure before. I'd love to see more images and if you have the patience to wait it out, the animal that makes it so we can figure this out.

Incidentally, your unknown crustacean in the first picture on the same page - the one with a red stripe down the body - is a mysid. I photographed the same species in Guana 25x32

 

[designbysue]

http://www.ocean-connections.com/gallery/Fgallery4-15.jpgseems to be the correct link

 

[Ocean Connections]

Ya the guy who I bought the dive shop from says he's been seeing them for the last five years or so. Usually in the spring and fall.
I'll try and get some more pics soon.

 

[Ocean Connections]

Hey how do you take those pictures, with an underwtaer camera or is it in a lab.
Any chance if i get you a sample you know someone who could iD it?

 

[LeslieH]

"Dish" shots. I take most of mine with a camera hooked to a microscope; the other photographer at Guana used a couple of different macro set-ups.

Depends on what it is and the level of id you want. I can tell if it's a sponge but not what kind on sponge; perhaps I can find a sponge expert if it is one. Same for the other groups. It might be more a matter of figuring if an animal is making the stuff or if it's an organism on its own.