under a hole in the sand, didn't realize it was still half buried until too late.
In plankton swimming around
~3mm long
Edit: He's been in my aquarium and He's growing! now ~5mm long. (26/05/22)
Edit 2: Saw him molt!
Edit 3: ~1cm long (5/06/22)
Edit 4: Molted (12/06/22) ~1.3cm
Edit 5: Molted (16/07/22) ~2cm
It died :( (18/08/22) ~2.5cm
Behaviours:
It can see my hand with the food before it enters the water and will react by reaching out for it.
It can rapidly swim and will catch food particles while swimming.
This species looks like Helobdella europaea as shown on the NIWA website.
There were heaps of these tiny things buzzing around. Could only just see them with a naked eye. Photo is taken on macro lens and zoomed in so not great quality. Thought they were shrimp initially but after viewing they look like some other crustacean - isopod maybe?
Under a rock in the intertidal zone; lots of them around. Worms?
collected by beam trawl, TAN1612 Kermadec Ridge Expedition
Locally common on tidal rocks
I think. It visually matches some existing observations.
Scientific name: Pachygrapsus crassipes
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Crustacea
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Infraorder: Brachyura
Family: Grapsidae
Genus: Pachygrapsus
Species: P. crassipes
Found at pilot bay at midtide during the afternoon.
Method 5 - Sandy flat observations
These creatures were abundant in the rock pools, or higher up on the rock face near the rock pools.
Quality is bad as screenshots from Snapchat video. Weird slug worm thing. From memory I think it changed colour and changes in size.
some sort of eggs? intertidal zone. maybe similar to https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/15964504
Freshwater worm x20mag.
Maybe PROBOSCIS WORM ( NEMERTEA : NEMERTEA )?
Little pink burrowing sea cucumber. Photo by Fiona Miller
Would love to know what this is
Is this a snot sea cucumber? It’s about the size of my index finger. Feels slimy to touch. Found at just after high tide under a rock.