Id Please

[Alatriel]

It arrived inside the bagged water of the first part of my florida aquacultured live rock.

It moves like an eel does when going through water. In the picture on the lower half of the animal it has what appears to be a fin running the length of it tapering to a point at the end. And what looks like a sucker at the front part.

It has spent the better part of 2 days inside a plastic tub without the water being circulated and is still kicking. Didn't notice it through the silt until I went to dump the tub this afternoon.

Need to know if it's Good or Bad but I do know it's Ugly

 

[keithntracy]

You're right about one thing...it is ugly!!! Sorry, can't tell you if it's good or bad though.

 

[albinooscar]

I wonder if it's one of those butt fish that live in cucumbers.:eek1: :eek1:

Ron

 

[Mike 1911A1]

Looks like a flatworm.

Mike

 

[AdidaKev]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7335954#post7335954 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by albinooscar
I wonder if it's one of those butt fish that live in cucumbers.:eek1: :eek1:

Ron

It does look like one of those...need a better pic for clarification, though.

 

[nctommy]

It is a lancelet aka amphioxus. It is the evolutionary intermediate between invertebrates and vertebrates. It is a bottom dwelling animal that burrows into coarse, shelly, high current swept sands. Their heads poke out of the sand and filter out suspended food particles. Its head is on the left side of the picture and has finger like projections coming out of it. Lancelets stay in the sand but can dart out if it wants to. They are very fast and swim in an eel like motion, and able to swim forward and backwards. It's just a harmless filter feeder that you might not see often.

 

[Alatriel]

Thanks everyone for the replies.

It seems that it is a Lancelet (Branchiostoma lanceolatum). I did some serious research on Wikipedia.


Habitat
Lancelets grow up to about five centimetres long, being eight centimeters at the longest. They are usually found buried in sand in shallow parts of temperate or tropical seas. In Asia, they are harvested commercially.

Other facts
They eat small planktonic animals. They reproduce asexually. They are free moving animals that swim through the water.