Synaptic Sea Cucumber @ Cyrene

Synaptic Sea Cucumber @ Cyrene Reef from BeachBum on Vimeo.

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Saw this synaptic sea cucumber at Cyrene Reef. It had body markings which were different from the others usually seen on the reef. The others usually have a dark brown or reddish body but this one had a patchwork of patterns along the length of the body.

Here is a link to another synaptic sea cucumber...
http://sgbeachbum.blogspot.com/2008/07/giant-mother-of-all-synaptic-sea.html

giant mother of all synaptic sea cucumbers!

giant synaptic sea cucumber ! ....from outaspace from BeachBum on Vimeo.
This is a large video so do wait for it to stream fully before viewing!
Click on the Vimeo link for better quality viewing .

Could this strange creature be from outer space? Does planet earth really have such creatures?
Does Singapore have them as well?

Well, Singapore definitely has synaptic sea cucumbers! Lots of them can be found on wonderful Cyrene Reef off the West Coast. (More on Cyrene here : http://www.wildsingapore.com/places/cyrene.htm)

Found this rather large synaptic sea cucumber of Cyrene Reef. It was very much larger (about 3cm in diameter) than any other I'd seen before. You can really see how it uses it's grasping tentacles to grasp material and shove it into it's mouth. The tentacles look like they have some sort of sticky ability. Anything they come across gets pulled into the mouth and passed down the digestive tract. You can just about make out the wave-like motion along the body of the animal.

The body is unlike that of other sea cucumbers. The synaptics' use the surrounding water to stretch themselves out. When they need to, they can instantly expel the water by contracting the body wall. (see the clip ending when the synaptic contracts itself away from the camera).

Interesting points to ponder on:-
Do sea cucumbers have eyes?
Do sea cucumbers have brains?
Are there separate male and female sea cucumbers?

Beautiful Cyrene 2 - Synaptic Sea Cucumber in action

Beautiful Cyrene 2 - Synaptic Sea Cucumber from BeachBum on Vimeo.

With a horizon of petrochemical industries, Cyrene reef is a wondrous exposition of nature. Very much like a coral atoll, but not quite, Cyrene is mostly submerged and only revealed at the lowest of tides. Constantly in danger of ship groundings and chemical leaks, Cyrene is amazing in it's biodiversity.

The clip shows a synaptic sea cucumber looking for food in a rich Thalassia seagrass meadow. With it's accordian-like body tube which relies on seawater for form, it unfurls it's feeding tentacles grasping material from the seagrass surrounding it and passing it one by one to a central mouth. This one, when fully expanded, was about a metre long. However, it can contract or deflate itself, within seconds, to a fraction of it's full length by expelling all the water in the body tube.

Sea Cucumbers are Echinoderms (Class Holothuroidea)

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Cyrene Reef is a unique submerged reef right in the centre of Singapore's West Coast port surrounded by petrochemical and shipbuilding industries. It is only visible and visitable during very low tides. At other tides, the entire reef is totally submerged. At suitable low tides, access is by amphibious (wet)landing as there is no jetty or pier. Cyrene (also called Terumbu Pandan) has unique mix of various ecosystems : seagrass lagoons, sand bars, rocky shores, coral rubble and coralline areas. It's biodiversity is amazing! A reef-seagrass-sand oasis!

Uniquely Singapore!
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useful links :
about Thalassia hemprichii seagrass : http://www.wildsingapore.com/chekjawa/text/g104.htm
on sea cucumbers : http://www.wildsingapore.com/chekjawa/text/p630.htm
http://www.aquatic.uoguelph.ca/inverts/diver/marine/echinodermata/holot.htm
http://tolweb.org/tree?group=Holothuroidea&contgroup=Echinodermata