Woman's strange find on Aussie beach: 'Travelled through the wormhole'

A colourful sea creature washed up on a beach in Far North Queensland has left some Aussies stumped and others cracking jokes.

A woman recently posted a picture of the bright pink worm-like object online in an attempt to figure out what it is.

“Can anyone identify this for me?” she asked the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria on Facebook, noting that while they were in another state, members may have “expertise about many different species".

The request left several people scratching their heads. “It looks like an eel to me. No idea what kind though,” one person commented, while another jokingly made a Stargate reference. “Clearly it’s a Goa’uld Symbiote,” they said before adding “…probably some sort of eel”. An amused member agreed, saying the creature must have “travelled through the wormhole to arrive in our strange land”. “Fukashima eel?” another person wrote in jest.

Experts recognise blind goby fish

When approached about the strange find by Yahoo News Australia, Associate Professor Ian Tibbetts with the University of Queensland said he believes it is a kind of blind goby fish called a Tripauchena.

“They tend to live in burrows which is why they lack pigment and have lots of blood to obtain oxygen, I think,” he said. “I do not have any references but many things that stay burrowed in mud must get as much O2 as possible.”

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Ichthyologist Jeff Johnson from the Queensland Museum told Yahoo the “fish belongs to a group known as worm gobies”, and specifically “appears to be the Comb Goby, Paratrypauchen microcephalus”.

“These are burrowers that are found below the surface in muddy or fine, silty substrate,” he explained. “They are generally bright pink or red in colour as they have numerous fine blood vessels close to the surface of their bodies.

“This allows them to absorb oxygen through their skin in an environment where it is difficult to obtain via their gills.” They feed on small benthic crustaceans, he added. Mr Johnson said the fish can be found “across the northern half of Australia, and as far south as Moreton Bay in Queensland”.

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