giant hitchhiker! What is this thing!??

jbeck

jbeck

Member
OK i found the biggest hitchhiker yet. This thig comes out at night and does not like the light . It cruises pretty fast on the rock work and is at least 1" wide and 6" long. Hope its good cause i dont want to try and catch it! What is it??????
 
barracuda

barracuda

Active Member
It's hard to tell from this picture, but this maybe some kind of sea cucumber. Can you make a better shot of it?
 
kimkissyfish

kimkissyfish

Member
WOW<
You say its FAST?? Thats what confuses me?? Hmm
Maybe you could try to trap it. You can buy a bristle worm trap at your LFS for like 12 bucks. Mine trapped all sorts of stuff so you can use it for other stuff too.. BUT being that this is so big you will have to take the end caps off and use a nail clipper and make the entrance wider... Maybe you can catch it! Put the trap next to where you see it hiding and shut the lights off and in the am, maybe it will have caught it to get a better ID... If its good, let it go, if its BAD flush it..:D
I have a HUGE bristle worm and I cannot for the life of me catch it.l Also, I see another small bristle worm that outsmarted the trap.. So good luck!!! Please post and let us know.. I do re visit posts.. :rolleyes:
Thanking you kindly, Kim
 
jbeck

jbeck

Member
Yea i guess the 8 dots on its back (you can sort of see a few in the pic) are where its shell plates are.
 
chinnyr

chinnyr

Member
ooops!I meant to say it looks like a peanut worm.Really.I don't quite know why they are named after food of all things!
 
jja

jja

Member
Holy shi!!! If thats what comes from live sand then I am sticking to cc.LOL!! That looks like an eel!!!
 
jbeck

jbeck

Member
he is a chiton no doubt. When i said it moved fast i meant that it had moved faster then i could get the camera. It sort of glides... Also this one is at least 6-8" long and 1 "wide so im sure it moves quicker then the little ones! here is a pic of the same type
 
killafins

killafins

Active Member
Originally, my eyes were focussed to the pink too and did not make out your hitchkiker but once i did... how could it be a 'chiton'? Chitons are oval shaped molusks type things. I don't know much about them but they arn't long and that big... here's a website about chiton's in order for you to see that your beast is not as easily ID'd as that. http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/wf/bc/bc97win.html
 
jbeck

jbeck

Member
It is not a worm it is flat on the bottom like a slug. It is a chiton i had a marine biologist ID it on another board. Here is a pic of one of its species from the other board.
 
shmeeb

shmeeb

Member
awesome pics! it still doesn't look like any chiton i've seen, but i suppose there's lots of different spieces. oh, by the way, worms can be flat. i've never seen one that looks like that though. did he mention what kind of chiton he thought it was?
 
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