We were bottom fishing around 4 miles out from the qawra/bahar ic caghaq area when we came across this bizarre creature... two of them actually both in different areas but nearby. It was able to swim pretty fast and it was feeding on the shrimp we were throwing into the sea. Can anyone recognise it?
(http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm196/karl_aq/P1010008.jpg)
Looks like a type of jellyfish.
I do not think those are jelly fish eggs LapsiBoy. On what evidence are you basing your claim? A quick search on wikipedia shows nothing close to that when it comes to eggs, look ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Schleiden-meduse-2.jpg
To me that looks more like a colony of organisms, but then again I am not a marine biologist, probably E-Fisher might be able to shed some light on it.
I would like to put in a general suggestion for the forum here. ' Thallatx il-hass mall-Bass' eng trans. ' Don't mix lettuce with farts ' (lol sorry I couldn't resist). This is a forum, a lot of people use this site for reference, misleading information never made anyone any good. So please if you don't know something, don't pretend that you do.
Muchas gracias.
Personally I think its a string of larvae of some sort... bet its good food for the fish!
Clutch Before you said anything I had changed what i said , because i checked
We spotted another one yesterday. This one was longer about 4 metres long. We used to go bottom fishing in the same area last year and we never spotted anything like this. clutch_kick, your conclusion does make sense since when we tried to lift the organism out of the water the segments kept breaking off at the point of contact with the hook. Neither I am a marine biologist but I can hypothesize that It is a larvae of some organism.
BTW it cannot be a jellyfish since jellyfish are sessile and radially symmetrical.
no those are eggs of a fish i forgot the name of
so how was it feeding then :) if it was eggs?
I said eggs because in november when i went with the nets i caught a ton of them ! they are like jelly with a hard brown (nut shaped) thing inside, when you squeeze them they turn into water. I think they are eggs because we caught a whole load of them in a cluster and there formation is very like larvae.
Fish-noob, fish have many strange charesteristics, maybe these type of eggs eat, after all they are not connected to thei mother.
If they were fish eggs there would be much more, they would be attached to a solid surface and theyr too big to be fish eggs.
Quotetheyr too big to be fish eggs.
maybe they are of a big fish!!! ???
hmmm not even shark eggs are nearly that big :/
sharks don't lay eggs, they are livebeares karlaq.
Exactly ;)
Anyway maybe they are not fish eggs, maybe they are eggs of some sort of jelly fish or something like that. I dont know im just telling you what i think.
Quote from: robby017 on July 09, 2009, 16:13:04 CET
sharks don't lay eggs, they are livebeares karlaq.
right xD.. still believe they arent eggs though since as I said before theyr usually attached to a surface.
Not all eggs are attached to a surface.
i don't believe that they are eggs, its just another strange, and beautiful organism the sea has to offer to us.... i've met these out at sea time and time again... with loads of differant shapes and sizes.
Some sharks lay Egg cases (what are sometimes called Mermaid Puches) and other sharks are live bearers.
lapsi boy .. an egg is a self contained, self sufficient object. The embryo inside it, that will eventually become a larvae or a foetus will have sufficient food, in the form of Yolk, to sustain it until it hatches. So, we can safely say that up until today science has no records at all of an egg capable to feed!! Ofcourse, discoveries are made everyday, you might even get a nobel prize for the discovery :-* .
Just imagine your chicken egss tring to bite you before turning them into scrambled eggs ... hehehe
but they are not sharks, a very good fisherman once old me the fish that breeds like that. used to breed in ports now it is nearly extinct.
take gd care when you see eggs they are the future
hi guys to me it looks alot like some jelly fish we see while freediving over the past few years we have seen many different shaped jellys and dogfish (mazzola)spieces still lay eggs
As far as i know they are jellyfish or a similar organism and not eggs as i have seen them before from my usual fishing spot (last year in point of fact)...and besides fish usually lay eggs on peices of flotsam or amongst weed etc I have also witness them "chasing" (more like engulfing as they were huge easy 12-20m in length) those small shrimp's.
As clutchkick said e-fisher may know as its his field of expertise ;D
I asked at fisheries and they told me its neither a jellyfish nor eggs.They told me what its called but I forgot.As Martin said they grow up meters in length.
The specimen is a colonial tunicate, many individuals joined together moving simultaneously. The species is Salpa democratica.
I have seen them on several occasions
Regards
Michael Darmanin
Senior Fisheries Officer
Malta Centre for Fisheries Sciences
Thanks for the info Mr Darmanin.
are they dangerous or can cause some kind of irritation when touched.
You don't blame me that I forgot! With that strange name ::)
It looks like a type of jellyfish.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salp
saw one by the tuna fishfarms yesterday
last summer i got one with a pice of wood of the boat and it left holes in the wood and left a bering look on it this one was alot bigger and longer and ever time t try to get it will brack in 2 never seen anything like it befor??