Pink See Through Fantasia

The Pink-See Through Fantasia, Enypniastes eximia is a pink sea cucumber that as its name suggests is completely transparent, although becomes red as they mature.

Enypniastes eximia observed in the abyss off Puerto Rico by the NOAA Okeanos Explorer mission

http://www.whoi.edu/science
/B/people/sbeaulieu/H2O_new/H2O_images
/ech_hol_Eny_1.html

The pink sea through Fantasia is a benthopelagic mobile sea cucumber found between 461 and 5689 metres in temperate and tropical waters.

The cucumber has a barrel-shaped body and 12 conical podia with two rectangular posterior lateral veils of 10-15 podia. They have no bones and like other holothurians, they feed on benthic sediment. Their sediment filled intestine is visible through their body wall. They are on average 11 to 25 cm in length. 

They use bioluminescence to deter predators, they have granular bodies which cause their skin the luminesce. Their skin is also very sticky and fragile so can leave glowing ”paint” on a predators skin which reveals it’s location to other deep-sea organisms.

Classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Echinodermata
Class:	Holothuroidea
Order:	Elasipodida
Family:	Pelagothuriidae
Genus: Species:	Enypniastes eximia

References  

Robison, B. (1992). Bioluminescence in the benthopelagic holothurian Enypniastes eximia. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 72(2), 463-472. doi:10.1017/S0025315400037826 Pawson, D. L., D. J. Vance, C. G. Messing, F. A. Solis-Marin & C. L. Mah. (2009). Echinodermata of the Gulf of Mexico. Pp. 1177–1204 in Felder, D.L. and D.K. Camp (eds.), Gulf of Mexico–Origins, Waters, and Biota. Biodiversity. Texas A&M Press, College S.

Théel, H. 1882. Report on the Holothuroidea, dredged by H.M.S. Challenger during the year 1873-1876, Zoology 4(3): 1-176.