Larval octopus or jellyfish ?

[elbuzo 8]

Found this creature about 1/2 inch long drifting at night at 30 ft.

 

After the first photo it disappear , so i cant figure it out what was that .

 

Location: South coast of Dominican Republic , Caribbean Sea

 

Any idea ?

Edited September 22, 2009 by elbuzo

[acroporas 0]

I vote neither. But I am not sure what it is.

[james 0]

I don't know either. It's not an Octo as they look fully formed and like little tiny octos right when they hatch from the egg.

 

Whatever it is looks like it has nematocysts.

 

Cheers

James

[Leslie 0]

Can you send me a high-res crop of just the animal? I have an idea but don't want to embarrass myself if I'm totally wrong....

 

lharris(at)nhm(dot)org

[elbuzo 8]

Thanks guys

 

Leslie i was looking for the raw file and seems that i deleted by accident !!!!! At the moment the only image i have is that one .

 

I will look better and also i will try to recover it , i will let you know shortly . If i didn't find it , let's take a guess .... will be better than nothing .

 

JA

[scubamarli 5]

Methinks it may be a wormie (eww!) thing...Leslie is probably excited! Good capture!

Cheers,

Marli

[Leslie 0]

Methinks it may be a wormie (eww!) thing...Marli

 

"Eww!" Et tu, Marli?

 

But you're right, I do think it's a wormie thing. Take a look at Art's picture of a terebellid polychaete http://www.flickr.com/photos/80125969@N00/374980417/ Pigmentation on the feeding tentacles & the body are very similar to Jose's critter. Terebellids can swim. Sometimes they are swept up into the water column involuntarily or swim up to escape predators. Occasionally the pelagic larvae don't settle on the bottom; instead they continue to develop & live in the water. A fellow worm-lover visiting the museum & I are working on terebellids right now. We both think Jose's critter is one. GOOD CAPTURE, JOSE!!!

[elbuzo 8]

Wow very interesting !

 

Thanks Leslie , i think you are right with the I.D. ( as usual ) . That night corals were spawning and water was like a soup , warm and dense ( full of plancton and other small things .

 

Regards

 

JA