ID needed

Can anyone ID this for me? It was taken in the Bahamas on a night dive. I wasn't even sure if it was coral or a type of starfish???? Anyone know?

Sandy

I believe it's a corallimorph, kinda looks like an anemone with real short arms. I may be wrong, seems to happen more than I'd like

I think it is a hard coral called Mussa. Here's a pic I took of one at the Flowergardens:

HTH

James

Can anyone ID this for me? It was taken in the Bahamas on a night dive. I wasn't even sure if it was coral or a type of starfish???? Anyone know?

 

Sandy

 

Ok guys - here is a most likely id:

This is an Elegant Anemone (actinoporus elegans) or similar as Elegant's don't have a huge known range.

I thought initially it was a Cactus Coral of some kind, but since it has an oral disc (i.e. a mouth) in the middle, it is very definelty an anemone. It isn't a collimorph as the tenticales don't "radiate from the oral disk to form cocentric circles" which is the @ 1 identifier.

Very nice find.

M

The mussids are a single polyped large stony coral - so they have one or a couple of mouthes.

I originally though it might be a cactus coral too, but it isn't.

Mussids are pretty rare and come in a variety of colors. I have seen green and pink - but never a combo of green and pink.

Cheers

James