Amazing Macrophotography of the Bizarre Deep Sea Creatures

 Deep sea creatures are often unnoticed unless you are a scuba diver. They brought us these amazing beautiful creatures from the deep.

Photo Credit    Photo Credit

The Christmas tree worm, Spirobranchus giganteus, is a Christmas tree-shaped serpulid tube-dwelling worm with magnificent twin spirals of plumes used for feeding and respiration. This cone-shaped worm is one of the most widely recognized sedentary polychaete worms. They come in many colors including orange, yellow, blue, and white and, though they are small with an average 3.8cm in span, the are easily spotted due to their shape, beauty, and color. The colorful plumes, or tentacles, are used for passive feeding on suspended food particles and plankton in the water. The plumes are also used for respiration. Though the plumes are visible, most of the worm is anchored in its burrow that it bores into a live calcareous coral. Christmas tree worms are very sensitive to disturbances and will rapidly retract into the burrow at the slightest touch or passing shadow. They typically re-emerge a minute later, very slowly, to test the water before fully extending their plumes.

Photo Credit

The scientific of this creature is Goniopora djiboutiensis. I tried to goggle its name but never found anymore information about it. They look like cactus only colored brown instead of green, bizarre but fascinating.  

Photo Credit

Tubastraea faulkneri is the scientific name of this gorgeuous flower like deep sea creature. Also known as orange cup coral. The sunset cup coral is a bright yellow or orange stony coral. It has a tentacular polyp that emerges from a porous, calcareous skeleton. The skeleton may be short and cylindrical or tall and inversely conical. It is typically solitary but is rarely found in small groups forming 'pseudocolonies'. The tentacles are quite long and number around 96. When fully retracted the tentacles are barely visible inside the skeleton. They are commonly seen  in shaded bedrock but typically found in caves and gullies in the seas of Western Mediterranean.

Photo Credit   Photo Credit

These are  biological dusting fan!. Isn't it amazing that there is an existing worm like this. Yes, this is actually a worm, a beautiful worm of the deep sea. Worms are wormy; often slimy, reclusive, mysteriously appearing and disappearing really bizarre but they are beautiful.

Photo Credit   Photo Credit

This are "Tunicata" which contains the tunicates and ascidians, or sea squirts as they are often called.There are over 1500 species in this subphylum, and the Class Ascidiacea contains two major divisions; Enterogona and Pleurogona that interest hobbyists. These contain colonial and solitary 'sea squirts.' Enterogona contains the Orders Aplousobranchia and Phlebobranchia. Pleurogona contains the Order Stolidobranchia. Most sea squirts are found on reef drop-offs and/or under overhangs, with some found at the base of corals. Occasionally, they are found attached to live rock or corals entering the aquarium. They are called 'sea squirts' because a jet of water is expelled when they contract. Very few of these beautiful creatures are sustainable for more than a few months. And in fact, their general life span is generally no longer than a yearlike blue candles.

Photo Credit

This is called 'soft coral nick'. It is the most sensitive of all corals. They look like star fish but with browny tentaclets. Their tentacles are luminous which make them spectacular during the nignt. Deep sea experts found out that they had been disappearing due to the warming of the sea water.