Worm sea cucumber
| Worm sea cucumber | ||||||||||||
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Worm sea cucumber ( Synaptidae ) |
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| Synaptidae | ||||||||||||
| Östergren , 1898 |
Worm sea cucumbers (Synaptidae) are elongated, worm-shaped representatives of the sea cucumbers (Holothuroidea). As members of the order of the Apodida (footless sea cucumbers), they have no suction feet. They move by contracting their soft bodies. Your skin sticks to the ground because tiny, mostly anchor-shaped needles of lime stick out of the body. The different types can only be distinguished by specialists.
Worm sea cucumbers feed on organic detritus , which the animals , which are very active for echinoderms, dab from the ground with their wreath of tentacles around the mouth opening.
The small genus Synaptula is only a few centimeters long. The animals live as commensals on sponges , gorgonians , algae and seaweed . They eat organic particles on the surface of the host and excretions.
With a maximum length of 2.50 meters, the spotted worm cucumber ( Synapta maculata ) is the largest species. It has a diameter of only five centimeters. Your body is so unstable that if lifted out of the water it can tear it apart.
literature
- Svein A. Fossa / Alf Jacob Nilsen: Coral reef aquarium Volume 6 , Schmettkamp Verlag, 1998, ISBN 3-928819-18-6
