Creature ID (Carolina Coast)

[audioaddiction]

i've been looking and looking for the proper place to post a Creature ID bulletin and couldn't find one, and the Search page is almost always down, so here goes.

i live in Wilmington, North Carolina and steal things from the ocean surf and at docks and other places.

1. i have some type of sea squirt that is common in the area, and he is covered with a reddish-orange growth. i have no idea what it is. it was on the sea squirt when i aquired it, and is spreading to the rock it is attached to only less than a week later. i only have actinic lights so taking photos of it was challenging. anyway, check it out!

2. next i have a yellow, jelly, slimy growth that grows jelly shaped points from itself. so far, some of it is alive, some has died. the one sitting with (possibly attached) to a small red type of sea squirt is still alive, and the one free floating on the bottom alone is dead now, shriveled up. check it out.

3. last i have two triggerfish (filefish, if you'd like) found living amongst these other things. i've tried to find out exactly which kind they are but no luck yet. the larger one shows less color, he's a little more pale. sort of sandy-colored. spotty. no extravagant colors. they're cool though. already eating some of the neat things i found at the beach to grow in there. i love the way filefish move, they're more complicated and interesting than many other fish.

 

[greenbean36191]

The orange things are colonial tunicates (sea squirts). The yellow thing is an encrusting sponge.

Fish aren't really my think, but my guess is that the fish are sargassum filefish.

 

[Sk8r]

Neat finds! I agree with tunicates, and sponge. And the 'filefish' sort of jogs recognition when I look at that shape.

 

[audioaddiction]

locked on

locked on

guys i think you gave positive ID's on everything, especially the Sargassum Filefish, it's dead on. I have been out in the water at the beach over the years here and at Hatteras and on those few days that seaweed keeps floating by i've just about always seen these guys. I never had a means to catch them or a place to keep them until now.

i wonder how much the colonial tunicates will attempt to spread. i did a little research and found that they are a new very big pest in canals of Washington state, taking over previous life and looking ugly. cool for now though.

the yellow sponge is colorful, that's why i took it. it's fine in there for now, we'll see how it does.

thanks for the help!

 

[LeslieH]

Your orange tunicate is a species of Botrylloides. While many Botrylloides species are introduced around the world the invasive tunicate you read about (which is found in Washington, California, the US east coast and Europe) belongs to the genus Didemnum. The one you have doesn't grow anywhere near as fast as the pest. Incidentally, did you notice that the Botrylloides is overgrowing another tunicate? The two siphons on the lower left might be Polyandrocapra tumica which has brown stripes.

 

[kryppy]

I've taken those sargaso filefish and the also the sargaso crabs from floating seaweed. They are cool, but my grouper always eats them...

 

[MarineBioMel]

sponge id

sponge id

I got my marine bio degree at UNCW, and I used to do the same thing! The sponge is called a sulfur sponge (don't worry- just because of the color). Ah, marine invertebrate biology! I'm studying birds now in AZ for my doctorate, so it is fun to put my NC marine bio back to work sometimes.

 

[audioaddiction]

ahhh yes! wilmywood represent! haha

 

[NCsaltwaterfan]

Hi, I live in NC as well and have a beach house around the Cape lookout area. Hear are a few picks of things I've collected.

^I think that's a tube anemone^

^I think that might be a spot-fin butterfly fish^

^Not sure what that is. I found it in some sargasso weed^


Let me know if you can help me i.d. some of these fish.

Thanks