Roatan Creature - please identify

[Sirto]

While doing some snorkelling at night from Fantasy island I found several creatures that I believed might be brittle star but now I'm not so sure.

The were always under coral so I never saw the whole animal but what I did see was an arm about 3 -4" long. It was black and had short spines sticking out all along it's length Whenever I shone the light on one of these they would start retracting under the coral, not very fast but quite noticeable.

Were these brittle stars or something else?

Ed

 

[SueMermaid]

Hard to say without a photo, but it sounds like a brittle star to me, too.

 

[texinutila]

Probably a blunt-spined brittle star.

 

[archman]

Another good candidate is the black crinoid Nemaster. Their main body is hidden under coral, with the long arms hanging out to catch particulate matter. The arms are covered in sticky tube feet, which superficially resemble spines. If you mess with 'em, the arms will retract.

 

[snorkelgeek]

While doing some snorkelling at night from Fantasy island I found several creatures that I believed might be brittle star but now I'm not so sure.

The were always under coral so I never saw the whole animal but what I did see was an arm about 3 -4" long. It was black and had short spines sticking out all along it's length Whenever I shone the light on one of these they would start retracting under the coral, not very fast but quite noticeable.

Were these brittle stars or something else?

Ed

Can't help other than to offer up a pic of a Roatan brittle star that I stumbled across last night:
http://www.roatanisland.net/dive_photo_gallery.htm

Maybe you can tell from one of the two brittle star pics whether your critter is the same.

Brenda

 

[Sirto]

Can't help other than to offer up a pic of a Roatan brittle star that I stumbled across last night:
http://www.roatanisland.net/dive_photo_gallery.htm

Maybe you can tell from one of the two brittle star pics whether your critter is the same.

Brenda

The arms on the critter I saw looked like the brittle star in your picture except that it was all black.