please ID this Alien

[smilodon]

I found that in chinese saltwater forum, and nobody knows what is this,
looks like from the moive ALIEN, it's acting like spring, jump out of the
cave in the LR to prey a small fish.

 

[joejoe1055]

don't know but i'm a little scared now
where is ripley when we need her?

 

[Allmost]

I found that in chinese saltwater forum, and nobody knows what is this,
looks like from the moive ALIEN, it's acting like spring, jump out of the
cave in the LR to prey a small fish.

View attachment 138662

wow !

and Nasa is looking for aliens up int he space .... lol

 

[pagojoe]

I wish we could see more of it. I bet Leslie will know what it is though.

 

[yakfishin]

That is a Zizzer-zazzer-zuzz, first named by the famous marine biologist, Dr. Seuss.

 

[katspaw]

It looks like a blind worm eel of some type. Are the gold feather type scales part of it?

 

[dvenson]

that does look like an alien hahaha terror is coming from the deep

 

[smilodon]

found the answer, and it is Eulagisca gigantea, it lives in Antarctica.
so don't worry, it will be cooked in normal reef tank.

 

[LeslieH]

Yes, Eulagisca gigantea. That's a specimen at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. See this link for a whole animal
http://www.flickr.com/photos/artour_a/3577643584/in/photostream/#/photos/artour_a/3577643584/in/photostream/lightbox/


Eulagisca is a genus in the polychaete scaleworm family Polynoidae. The picture Smilodon posted shows the everted proboscis and 4 jaws. They're primarily carnivores but will eat detritus & scavenge if living prey - usually other polychaetes & crustaceans - aren't around. Unfortunately, the entire animal in the image above is upside down so you can't see the scales. These are multiple pairs of soft fleshy disks going down the body. You can see two detached ones above the worm.

 

[nynikki]

holy cow! How did that end up in someones tank in the first place?

 

[LeslieH]

It didn't. The photos are of a preserved specimen at the Smithsonian. The animal was collected somewhere in the Antarctic region.