Inside peppery furrow shell ~3-5 cm
Dentro de la almeja (Scrobicularia plana)
A good sized one far out in the sand past the reef.
~10 m subtidal
Many different polychaete species swimming around. This scaleworm was releasing ~~eggs~~ sperm.
Starting to gets lots washing in with the southerly. Hasn't been any for quite a while until the last couple weeks.
Found in a washed up gastropoda. was alive for a couple days without much water!
I've seen a couple of these around so never thought to check I.D. going back through photos and can't see any similar on here. Help would be appreciated :)
Peg for scale.
Found amongst beach cast fishing gear that was harbouring crabs and goose barnacles.
zipping along the surface of the water at high speed. These ones beached on a rock when the wave surge receeded
Had another look at some of the worm beds near low tide today. Found one worm partially out. Was going to dig it up, but a wave washed in before i was able to. Found no other worms when I tried to dig in another bed of worm holes. There are some larger holes interspersed with all the small ones on the raised beds.
A seagull had pulled this worm from one of the worm beds we get along the beach. I gave it a fright and it dropped it. I had tried digging for the worms, but found nothing except for empty tubes (see 7th photo). I am assuming the worm shown is the worm species creating these worm beds. But it may not be. Any suggestions @readgb? I don't think it looks like a Thoracophelia as you thought they may be?
Very long (30cm+) polychaete worm drifting/dancing in the outgoing tide, saw a couple
A couple of times I've seen these big swarms at this spot near shore.
All the different colour variations swimming around probably a 3m^2 area.
I have no idea what these are. Weird, active tunes coming from ascidian like pink mass. Small (maybe 3mm) and growing from the stick I found the feather aeolids on
One I haven't seem before. It was very fast.
Under a rock.
~0.6cm long
~1m subtidal
This fellow is tiny, maybe 1mm diameter, only spotted through the viewfinder while photographing nearby 5mm sea anemones.
It slowly opened the arms but not very wide.
Revisited /observations/2351193, found it again without difficulty.
Second photo has my little finger as a scale, the finger nail is about 11mm at its widest point, so I estimate this beast is about 0.75mm across when closed up.
In these shots we can see it comes out of a sand/shell? encrusted hole (which it can completely withdraw into), but no sign of a closure to the hole.
It withdraws readily when disturbed, but I'm not sure whether light or water movement is what it detects. It didn't seem to react to the white LED light from the camera going on and off.
To the upper left in the 8th photo is something else with numerous fine arms ... just out of focus.
Quite common.
~0.5-1cm diameter
Mid-low intertidal, under an encrusted rock.
Collected and preserved in ethanol.
Outer Waitemata Harbour seashore at Hobson Point, Orakei, Auckland 1071. One live animal on the underside of a submerged rock, in the low intertidal.
@readgb I hope you can appreciate the difficulty in getting this one to sit still for long enough to take some photos. Given I don't have a permit to collect here, I couldn't place it in ethanol.
Under low intertidal rock resting on small bits of rock, sand and corallina.
Manukau Harbour seashore at Blockhouse Bay, Auckland. In an upper intertidal rockpool.
Tiny one with an interesting head.
Under a rock.
~1m subtidal
~0.6cm long
These are the webcasters I believe do the majority of the large mucus webs. The webs are much coarser and expansive. They are filled with these tiny long worm animals.
~1.5cm long, web size ~8cm
Shallow subtidal
Same species as previously observed: 103465983.
Under a rock.
~2cm long
Shallow subtidal.
Possibly a juvenile of the same species that I previously observed: https://inaturalist.nz/observations/100754895
But it does look a bit different.
This one was floating and landed on seaweed in the corner of my eye. At the surface but in quite deep water.
~1cm long
<1m Depth
Large beds growing on the shelves, much smaller than the parchment tubes washed up on beaches. Most of these photos at c6m (high tide). The clump was weird.
Approx 30mm length, found amongst seagrass roots at low water.
The other species to the previous ones I have observed?
Under a rock.
~1m subtidal
I was told these are the polyps of a moon jellyfish
Single "tubes" found in rock pools on the low low intertidal zone. Not living in groups. This is the best series of photos I could get and the creature can be seen coming out as the tide washed in and out. The sand tube is approx 10mm thick and about 15mm high.
Would seeing this help to ID these @wmblom?
Used peristaltic motion to aid movement. Under a rock.
~1.5cm long
Maybe Nicidion, but I'd like to hear what @readgb thinks before committing to a genus-level ID. This genus doesn't seem to have any NZ records.
Body mainly colourless, with white patches. Dorsal surface of first peristomial ring reddish. Anterior chaetigers with thin red band. Antennae yellowish-brown, with red band inferior to tips. Median antenna long, equivalent in length to ~3 chaetigers. Palps short, colourless. Peristomial and dorsal cirri mainly colourless, with red band (as in antennae).
Approx. -1 metre, low tide. Under cobble.
head end found in coral rock (most of tail missing); swarming rear ends in tray (red = female; green = male)
Many individuals S
wimming down a drain from Cairns swamp towards the river
~3cm wide
~2m depth
Big guess - is there a guide for sedentary marine worms?
Outer Waitemata Harbour seashore at Hobson Point, Orakei, Auckland 1071. Intertidal on rocky reef.
attacking a flatworm! right there in front of my camera! the light green stuff exploded out and grabbed the flatworm then would shrink back into the poly if the flatworm wriggled out! very very weird.