[teddscau]

So, for years I've been trying to find out what it was that injured me while I was diving.

More than ten years ago, I was diving in Curaçao. While exploring, I almost crashed into an anemone (maybe it was an urchin?), so I put my hand on the sand bed to avoid getting stung. However, the sand had this gooey red slime on it (I was wondering what it was earlier during the dive as I kept seeing large patches of what looked like a bunch of blood that had settled on the sand), and I got it all over my hand. I started to panic a bit because I had no clue if it was toxic, so I quickly wiped my hands together to get it off.

As I swam away, I stared at my hands, worried that I was going to need first aid. I had swum at least ten feet when I noticed these strange spikes/barbs floating towards my hand. I can't really remember, but I think they might have been brown, and they were one or two centimetres long. I watched as they floated towards my fingers, then imbedded themselves in my flesh. I think there were three or four of them? At this point, I was extremely freaked out, and without thinking, I wiped my hands together to dislodge them.

By now, I was really worried, but I wasn't experiencing any sort of pain or discomfort. When I swam to the surface, I noticed my fingers had cuts in them from the spikes/barbs. They weren't bleeding, and they didn't hurt. If anything there might have been a really mild burning sensation.

The drive instructor said I'd touched fire coral, but after reading about fire coral, I learnt that it was supposed to cause excruciating pain when touched, and that it had a skeleton. What I'd touched way gooey, and I didn't remember feeling a skeleton—just gooey sand.

The barbs had clearly followed me, and no, it wasn't from the current generated from swimming. I had scares for a couple of months, but I was otherwise fine.

Do you guys know what it was that I touched?