Anemone in Loch Long

[scottish-diver]

Well at the risk of sounding like I know sod all about marine life I'm going to ask another question about something new I seen on yesterdays dives. :o

I seen an anemone at both Craggen point and the A-Frames.

They were slightly bigger than the sea loch anemones they were next to; had 6-12 tenticles of which each one had branches running off it like a tree; were red, orange and white in colour.

I've tried looking for information on the internet but can't find anything relevant.

I'm sure someone on here (i'm looking at you Dive Tramp!) will be able to tell me what they are :D

[dive granny]

You will need to get yourself an underwater camera, so you can post your pics for easy i.d.:D

[braincoral]

Sounds like a sea cucumber.

[scottish-diver]

Nice one Braincoral!!

I never thought of it being a sea cucumber. Do'h.

I typed the words "sea cucumber scotland" into google images and this is one of the links it came up with!

http://www.congeralley.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2739&highlight=carron

It was a Psolus phantapus

Don't suppose you can recommend a good book for identifying scottish marine life?

I thought of getting a camera but I'm not one for taking a lot of photos and it all sounds far too time consuming. My loss i guess.

[scotdiver]

Paul Naylor's book (http://www.mcsuk.org/acatalog/Marine_Conservation__British_Marine_Life_13.html) is quite good.

[scottish-diver]

Paul Naylor's book (http://www.mcsuk.org/acatalog/Marine_Conservation__British_Marine_Life_13.html) is quite good.

Thanks, it looks pretty good plus its only £10.50 for the paperback from Amazon.

Def one to add to the list.

[Canadadiver]

Naylor is good (there's 2 editions out there, so make sure to get the most recent one) for starting out. I've been using the internet to make trickier ID's:

MarLIN (http://www.marlin.ac.uk/sah/) is good, once you have an idea what you're looking for...

Nudipixel (http://www.nudipixel.net/) is not what it sounds like (a bunch of perverts just hit the Back button), but it's pretty good for... sea slugs.

[scotdiver]

Also Jim Anderson's Scottish Nudibranch (http://www.scottishnudibranchs.co.uk/) website

[triplefin]

this covers just about everything

http://www.habitas.org.uk/marinelife/index.html

[Dive Tramp]

Yep, SD, sorry I was busy last night. It is indeed a Sea Cucumber, well done folks.:)

[scottish-diver]

Thanks for the website recommendations.

I'll use them from now so i'm not pestering you all :)

Just managed to identify the first and only nudibranch i've seen as a Limacia clavigera.