ID on this weird coral

[Lypto]

I was watching a dive from Indonesia and there was an interesting coral like organism I saw, can anyone ID it?

 

[patback]

29 minutes ago, Lypto said:

I was watching a dive from Indonesia and there was an interesting coral like organism I saw, can anyone ID it?

 

I'm gonna go out far on a limb here, but I feel like it's not a coral.  No idea what it is, but I feel like it's not.  

Following along.  Was it a dive you recorded, or found on the internet?

[Lypto]

A video on Youtube, 

I was looking for a closer video of the reef as I'm looking to explore some of the smaller and more unnoticed species of the reef, these appeared larger though, about the size of a basketball at 22:10

 

[sbsouthpaw]

Following along, there's actually 2 in the video 

[Christopher Marks]

That's such a soothing video to watch @Lypto! Very unusual coral.

[Lypto]

I'll ask around to some of the nearby college's marine bio professors and see what they think. It almost appears like a fire anemone that's curled in on itself. I remember seeing something that looked close in the gulf of mexico that later uncurled. but it was bright red with white and translucent tips and could sting pretty hard, but it had more of a stalk or was more often buried in sand (I learned of the stinging after brushing up against it).

 

So far I think it's not a sponge based on lack of input/output orifices, it also doesn't appear to be colonial, or maybe it is in the same way huge soft corals are. 

Looking closer it almost looks like a very smooth soft coral that's curled in, but the branching structures feel wrong.

[Sunday]

Hi 🙂

look up for Astroboa Ernae (Ophiuroidea) also called Erna's Basket Star, on the picture it's in a resting posture 🙂

Source: https://www.starfish.ch/c-invertebrates/schlangensterne.html

[patback]

1 hour ago, Sunday said:

Hi 🙂

look up for Astroboa Ernae (Ophiuroidea) also called Erna's Basket Star, on the picture it's in a resting posture 🙂

Source: https://www.starfish.ch/c-invertebrates/schlangensterne.html

Hmm..  I've never seen  a basket star look so "meaty".   very cool!

[Lypto]

That's awesome, thanks so much for finding it @Sunday! I agree with  @patback , I've never seen such a "meaty"  basket star. I wonder if there's any nano sized basket stars like that 🙂