Unidentified Critter from Lembeh

I've seen this critter twice in the last 8 months. The guides haven't seen it before, and I'm wondering if anyone knows what it is.

It was swimming around above the sand,as can bee seen. It was about 1cm high, and it's tail maybe twice that long.

Is it the larval stage of something? Any ideas welcome.

[vimeohd]17049147[/vimeohd]

My god that's huge! It's a pelagic tunicate. The group name for these is Larvacea because they retain the tail & pelagic life style of typical tunicate larvae. Normally Oikopleura forms a mucus house which acts as a giant filter to collect food particles. The houses don't last very long so the Oikopleura constantly makes new ones while the discarded houses sink down to the bottom. See how there's a cloud of particles & mucus strings that travel at the same speed as the animal in your video? That's the transparent house.

The typical larvacean (also called appendicularian) is tiny, just a few millimeters long and transparent. I've never seen one like this.

http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexm...jan01/oiko.html

http://www.tafi.org.au/zooplankton/imageke...aria/index.html

This image from the Philippines by the Poppes appears to be the same species. They called it Oikopleura and I'd love to know what reference they used for the name.

http://www.poppe-images.com/?t=17&photoid=942672

Hi Leslie,

Thank you very much for your detailed reply and links. 'Snot House'!!! What a name!! But makes perfect sense. I wasn't sure if the cloud surrounding it was part of the tunicate or just general debris drifting at the same rate as the creature.

Best regards,

Kaj