Squishy grey anemone looking thing on live rock squirts moves but attached ID and baby crab ID

[47aquatics]

Never seen one quite like it anyone can ID it came in on live rock rubble it moves , it has two small holes on each end - it is soft and squishy like a slug / snail / anemone and I have seen it squirt once or twice - looking to figure what it is if NPS or a pest or a fish eater

Also anyone know what type of crab is it baby Mithrax

 

[Ron Reefman]

Never seen one quite like it anyone can ID it came in on live rock rubble it moves , it has two small holes on each end - it is soft and squishy like a slug / snail / anemone and I have seen it squirt once or twice - looking to figure what it is if NPS or a pest or a fish eater

Also anyone know what type of crab is it baby Mithrax

Your mystery critter could be some kind of Sea Cucumber. Have you ever seen any stringy tentacle come out of the opening at one end?

Not sure what kind of crab that is, but I'm pretty sure it's not a baby Mithrax.

 

[47aquatics]

Your mystery critter could be some kind of Sea Cucumber. Have you ever seen any stringy tentacle come out of the opening at one end?

Not sure what kind of crab that is, but I'm pretty sure it's not a baby Mithrax.

This is what I thought as well and I did see what looked like to be tiny feather like appendages near one end - I looks attached to the rock however like a nem or clam aren’t all sea cucumbers moving not attaching

 

[47aquatics]

More photos of the crab maybe some sort of nem crab ?

 

[47aquatics]

He is very animated

 

[twentyleagues]

When you say it moves what exactly do you mean? Some places else you say its attached to the rock? If its attached it looks kind of like a sea squirt. No idea on the crab.

 

[47aquatics]

When you say it moves what exactly do you mean? Some places else you say its attached to the rock? If it’s attached it looks kind of like a sea squirt. No idea on the crab.

upper left of this photo is one of the 2 openings (the other opening is on the other side) … if you look toward the center of the photo leaning toward bottom right side you will see it’s flesh is attached and sort of stretched onto the rock in the same way a mushrooms foot attaches

 

[47aquatics]

Video & more photos

 

[Labridaedicted]

Your mystery critter is a type of tunicate, sometimes called a sea squirt. They're pretty common in our temperate waters as well.

The crab is no good. Almost universally, sharp black tipped claws indicate they'll eat desirable things.

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

Your mystery critter is a type of tunicate, sometimes called a sea squirt. They're pretty common in our temperate waters as well.

The crab is no good. Almost universally, sharp black tipped claws indicate they'll eat desirable things.

Came to say this. I think this is the correct ID for both

Tunicate
And crab=bad

 

[47aquatics]

Your mystery critter is a type of tunicate, sometimes called a sea squirt. They're pretty common in our temperate waters as well.

The crab is no good. Almost universally, sharp black tipped claws indicate they'll eat desirable things.

Agreed on the claw shape - must just be a baby then , also agree on the tunicate - thanks for confirming my suspicions (have seen many just never in this color and with this thickness of skin) in the trade being sold or delt with , I am assuming this grey one to be one of the more common species found in the actual ocean ?

 

[Labridaedicted]

Agreed on the claw shape - must just be a baby then , also agree on the tunicate - thanks for confirming my suspicions (have seen many just never in this color and with this thickness of skin) in the trade being sold or delt with , I am assuming this grey one to be one of the more common species found in the actual ocean ?

Yeah, tunicates are pretty diverse and usually are either Colonial or solitary. The Colonial ones are the ones that are generally attractive and can be found for sale (royal tunicates and similar) whereas the solitary ones are pretty drab usually and get larger. Certainly a fun hitchhiker. They need to filter feed a fair amount to live though, so probably won't be a long term survivor, though.

Interestingly, you wouldn't know from looking at them, but they are actually not far from being vertebrates. They actually have whats called a notocord as juveniles when they are free swimming that's kind of like a bundle of nerves acting like a spinal cord. Not important, but was an interesting fact that I have held onto all these years from I believe invert biology or one of my marine bio classes (was ages ago, now.)