Some weird and wonderful sea creatures have been on show at Macduff Marine Aquarium over the years, but this Easter sees possibly the strangest looking beast making an appearance in the aquarium’s displays.
A few weeks ago, staff from the aquarium were asked to identify a sea animal that had been scraped off the bottom of a fishing boat that was in for cleaning – one of the Macduff Shipyard painters brought the strange critter along to the aquarium wrapped in paper, mystified as to what it could be.
It looked like something that could be the star of an alien movie. At about 5cm long, it had a long rubbery stalk supporting a rounded body, with two odd looking protrusions. Although no-one on the aquarium team had ever seen one before, they quickly identified it as a rabbit-eared barnacle (Choncoderma auritum), and similar to the more common goose barnacle that is often found attached to ships, buoys or logs floating out at sea.
Although presumed dead when it was brought to the aquarium, the staff put the barnacle in seawater and were delighted to see it was still alive. Time lapse photography showed it feeding on plankton – and well deserving of its name. The protrusions look very like bunny ears, supporting the barnacle’s body in the water column as it sweeps for plankton with feathery legs – reminiscent of Bugs Bunny’s teeth!
After several weeks of feeding well in the aquarium’s quarantine tank, ‘Bugs Bun-acle’ has now been put out on show to the public. There are not many records of this kind of goose barnacle in the North Sea although they are pretty cosmopolitan, living attached to whales and ships and hitching a ride around the world’s oceans. They have an interesting sex life too – like other barnacles they are both male and female at the same time!
Chris Rowe, aquarium displays officer said: “Bugs is a very funny looking animal – when you watch him he doesn’t seem to do much but hang in the water, but time-lapse video of him shows clearly how he moves on his bendy stalk to find food.
“We had to think carefully about which tank to display him in, since he would normally enjoy life on the open ocean. We eventually have put him in the muddy seafloor display, which has no fish to nibble his legs, and we hope he settles in to his new home.”
To see the video of Bugs, visit Macduff Marine Aquarium’s Facebook page here