WHATSTHATFISH
Sea stars & urchins

Furry Sea Cucumber

Astichopus multifidus

Also known as: Black-spotted Sea Cucumber, Fissured Sea Cucumber, Lollyfish

LCLeast ConcernIUCN Red List, 2013
Adult
@eksmp · Caye Caulker, Belize · April 20141 / 1
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Overview

Found singly during the day often buried in the sand, active at night over soft sandy areas and seagrass beds close to reefs rich in algae growth. Quite an active sea cucumber and has been observed crawling, spinning and rolling in the sand!

Some sea cucumbers crawl around on the bottom slowly filtering sand through their tentacles to gather food, while others spread their tentacles above them to capture plankton. A number of sea cucumbers feed nocturnally while others feed by day.
There are sea cucumbers that hardly move while others are more active often perching on tall sponges to feed.
Sea cucumbers often attract hitch-hikers like shrimps and crabs that crawl over their skin, also pearlfish that enter via their anus.
As a means of defence sea cucumbers can expel their intestines or respiratory organs in the form of sticky threads, but these can quickly regenerate.
Juveniles often mimic sea slugs.
Some types of sea cucumbers are edible and considered a delicacy in the Far East countries.

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How to identify

Body shape
furrynodules

Tap any trait to see other fish that share it.

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Habitat & where to find it

  • Range · Western Central Atlantic, Caribbean
  • Country only · 1
LIVES IN

Found singly during the day often buried in the sand, active at night over soft sandy areas and seagrass beds close to reefs rich in algae growth.

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Adult photos 1

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Discussion

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    ALL STAGES
    FOR THE MARINE-BIOLOGY CURIOUS

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    Taxonomy

    1. kingdomAnimalia
    2. phylumEchinodermata
    3. classHolothuroidea
    4. orderSynallactida
    5. familyStichopodidae
    6. genusAstichopus
    7. speciesAstichopus multifidus (Sluiter, 1910)

    SourcesWoRMSWikipedia

    06

    More in the family

    Sea Cucumbers (Stichopodidae)