I collected this specimen along the coast of southern tamilnadu under the rocks. It looks like solitary ascidian. Its so soft, bright red colour with dots all over the body and in one end mouth opening like appendages was present.
Hi,
it looks more like an holothurian to me, with the crown of tentacles retracted. Then it could be Bohadsia sp.
Please send a closeup picture and further info. size seems to be 1-2cm.
What's the type of bottom? sand? rocky? was it in the intertidal zone?
Dear Nandha Gopal,
The picture resembles that of the swimming seacucumber known as Spanish dancer (Benthodytes sp ) of the class Holothuroidea.
Good luck!
Dear Nandha Gopal,
It is looks like Staurothyone rosacea (Semper, 1869) sea cucumber
Ravinesh
Even the toadstool ascidian Pseudodistoma spp. looks almost like this!!
Sea cucumber Benthodytes typica is recorded from Indian waters.
Interesting!!
It is very hard to identify a colonial ascidian from a photo - you have to slice them and see if there are zooids in them. Ascidians do not have appendages, so if you saw appendages on the open end, then it is likely a sea cucumber, as suggested above. It is on top of two different colonial ascidians, though, the white one and the gray one in the background.
Impossible to provide a positive identification from a single image To demonstrate the uncertainty level of the the above suggested identifications consider the fact that they range across phyla.
Clay Bryce, Aquatic Zoology, WA Museum
Dear Nandha Gopal,
I agree with some of my colleagues above: it could be a holothurian or an ascidian. If the yellow pale projections are tentacles, it's probably a holothurian (more probable); if you find two siphons, an ascidian!
It's a holothurian with the tentacles retracted. You can see the bands of tube feet on the sides, too.
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