identify this caribbean invert

[archman]

I would also be interested in knowing what the fuzzy white things coating this thing are.

Taken on a reef buttress around 60 feet deep; San Salvador, Bahamas.

 

[LeslieH]

Hi Arch -- Good to have you posting again (or is it me that's been gone?). If that's a sponge then the fuzzy white things may be a syllid in either the genus Haplosyllis or Syllis. The best known example is H. spongicola which can occur by the tens of thousands in a large sponge. It was thought to be cosmopolitan :shakehead but has recently been shown to be a species complex.

 

[archman]

I kind of figured they might be some nasty worm-things. Thank you for the further clarification of their possible type... I've heard about spongicola somewhere but can't recall the exact source.

I wish I knew what the groovy brown thing was. It looks like "brain sponge".

 

[Rick Murchison]

I wish I knew what the groovy brown thing was. It looks like "brain sponge".

Mebbe its Diplastrella archmanii, if you write it up
Rick

 

[LeslieH]

Mebbe its Diplastrella archmanii, if you write it up
Rick

Naw, it's considered very tacky to name something after yourself or a relative with the same name. Maybe someday Arch will have a grad student that needs to make points with him! :lol:

 

[isurus]

Naw, it's considered very tacky to name something after yourself or a relative with the same name. Maybe someday Arch will have a grad student that needs to make points with him! :lol:

tacky maybe but the history books (or rather biology books) would [probably] still say archmanii long after the social furore was forgotten

 

[H2Andy]

ees cheese... yum yum

 

[OceanObsessed]

I would also be interested in knowing what the fuzzy white things coating this thing are.

Taken on a reef buttress around 60 feet deep; San Salvador, Bahamas.

C'mon....your joking... right? It's one of those cherry filled Christmas cookies with confectioners sugar on top