Has Anyone Ever Seen Anything Like This?

[mikepalo]

<p>On a recent dive off ft. lauderdale beach in South florida I came across this, and am wondering what it is. I first thought it was a portugese man-o-war which something may have been feeding on but when I look at the pictures closely now im not sure. Lemme know what you think.</p>

<p>-Mike</p><div></div>

[mikepalo]

<p>Different Angle</p><div></div>

[iancoxleigh]

<p>It looks like some form of Nudibranch.</p>

[Christa Binder]

<p>Maybe an alien, :D, just kidding. If you dont find out, maybe you could talk to the forida fish and wildlife committee. You never know, it could be a undiscovered species. or endangered? Let us know if you find out.</p>

[gerald_wallace]

<p>Just as guess, but it looks like a small lobster that is the host of lobster worms (cycliophord)? There are other possibilities but I'm not sure without more details as to size of the worms and if there is transformation - different stages in their life cycle. Thanks for showing the photo it's interesting.</p>

[jwallphoto]

<p>That's really cool. It looks like a Velella gone wild with tentacles. I don't see any rhinophores to make it a nudibranch, but I know very little about them. I'd ask someone at <a href="http://jellieszone.com/index.htm">http://jellieszone.com/index.htm</a>.</p>

[mikepalo]

<p>Hmm the picture is a little misleading on size i guess its too large to by any nudibranch ive ever seen ummm i would say the main "body" is 3-4in long the tentacles trailed off for at least 8-10in ummm but the individual partitioning of the tentacles was not visible to the naked eye from a ..."safe distance away" from it...(aka a ft or 2 away)</p>

[justinblack]

<p>It's a Man-o'-war.</p>

[mikepalo]

<p>Thats what i thought but what about the odd white "tentacles" and the strange segmentation is that natural?</p>

[leicaglow]

<p>Pretty sure is't a Physalia (Portugese man-o-war) but the upside down variety<g>.</p>