What did I see?

[Kirstie]

Paul (Turbanator) and I dived the Scylla on Saturday and, along with all the urchins, starfish and scallops, I saw some 'things' growing on the railings that I haven't been able to identify.

They're pretty hard to describe, so bear with me. They were rather anemone-like, with individual white arms (I didn't notice what the centres looked like but it wasn't a stalk like an anemone). At the end of each arm was a small brown 'flower' with tiny white filaments around it like petals. Each arm was around 1-1.5 inches long and was waving around individually. The whole creature was approx 3 inches across (including the arms).

I couldn't find it in Paul Naylor's book, but I guess it must be an anemone of some kind. Anyone know what it is?

[turbanator]

I found this site:


http://www.marlin.ac.uk/species/spec...p?phy=Cnidaria

[Norseman]

I have a feeling we're talking hydroids here. Although it sounds like it didn't look quite like these, was it atleast anything along the "theme" in these pics?





Kyrre

[Kirstie]

It was very much like those, especially the bottom picture, only the arms were more like an anemone's (fleshy rather than twig-like) and not quite as long as those in the photo.

http://www.habitas.org.uk/marinelife/index.html

Think I've found it - tubularia larynx (under Hydroids & Anemones).

[John Gulliver]

Unless I'm very much mistaken, Kyrre's second photo is Tubularia larynx. You'll find a photo of the same animal, taken by me a fortnight ago, here (image no. 1): http://johngulliver.smugmug.com/gallery/388241

[Kirstie]

Yep, that's it I reckon. Except yours is a pretty shade of pink and mine was a murky brown colour!

[turbanator]

Have we decided whether it's 'anenome' or anemone' yet.

I can google for both spellings.

[Kirstie]

Originally Posted by turbanator

Have we decided whether it's 'anenome' or anemone' yet.

I can google for both spellings.

Our dictionary at work only has anemone - there's no listing for anenome at all.

[turbanator]

Originally Posted by Kirstie

Our dictionary at work only has anemone - there's no listing for anenome at all.

Yes, I think that's right, I checked with an online dictionary and it suggests 'anemone' when you type in 'anenome'.