Can you name it ?

[scubadog]

Took this snap today, have no idea what it is...at first I thought, large nudi, or a member of the jellyfish family. To the left of it´s body there are tenticles. Any help in naming it, would be much appreciated...


All the best.

Pete.

[Dr Stevil]

Blimey, thats a tricky one. I think we can safely discard nudibranchs from the list as I've never seen a transparent one.
How large was it? From the surrounding algae it seems quite small.
Was it fixed to the substrate of had it just "landed" there?

If it seemed fixed then could you see two large "pores" on it ? If so I'd say it was some form of tunicate (sea squirt) if

If it just appeared to have "landed" there, then from it's general appearance and the fact that you've said there are tentacles to one side of the creature, I'm thinking its either some type of comb jelly (Ctenophore) or it was more robust then some form of immature jellyfish.

sorry but it's hard to say without more views of the beast, got any more pix?
Cheers
Steve

[scubadog]

Hi Steve...It was approx 4 inches long, one of the lads moved it with a piece of weed/grass. It didn´t open out into the classic jellyfish shape, however those tenticles did seem to extend. It didn´t move through the water either off it´s own steam, there wasn´t any noticeable current present, after a few feet it was quite happy just to settle on the bottom again, and again those tenticles moved as though feeling the new ground.
The only other shot I took was one from directly above, which doesn´t show anything more than the piccy you see.
I did get a shot of a jellyfish, a real big bugger about three and half foot long, didn´t post it as I´ve run out space...

Hope this helps Steve...

Pete

[Scuba1]

Looks like a small Portuguese man o war to me ....... but why did it sink ??


Michael

[scubadog]

Thanks Michael...I picked up a book at weekend that showed a Portuguese man-of-war floating at the surface, instantly thought of the piccy I had taken. There´s not a great deal of info on them in this book, other than calling them ´Floating Preditors´, perhaps the one I photographed was dying, although it looked in quite good shape, having never seen one before It didn´t look out of place lying on the bottom.
Are they common around Tenerife ?

Thanks Michael, all the best mate.

Pete.

[Scuba1]

You get them around the end of jan to the middle of feb when the wind blows from the south east for a while. And the buggers sting


MIchael