tubeworms

[kc]

Some liverock came with 2 small tubeworms, 1 is light tan in a white tube and the other is red brown in a brown tube. Unlike dusters, they have no feathery gills. They have flat heads and spurt out strings of goo to capture food then suck it back in. Sounds gross but it's quite interesting. Does anyone know the name/family of these? I'd like to see some closeup pics and anatomical drawings. Any ideas?null

 

[kc]

Thanks for the info!!! I'm going to look for some pics!
Of course they're not gills for breathing, but they are sometimes referred to as gills because of the diffusion process.

 

[kc]

Thanks, Sammy! I was just looking at those same pics!
Actually, I had 3, but one of my urchins, aka bulldoser, broke 2 and 1 apparently never recovered or moved elsewhere. Actually it probably got eaten! My killer shrimp don't miss much!

 

[kc]

In addition to the mucus strands, the white SNAIL seems to have 2 lloonngg tentacles! These are certainly retractable. It's able to move them all around but doesn't use them for gathering food.
Last night the larger, brown one caught a big chunk of plankton. It was cool watching him try to eat that!

 

[ocellaris_keeper]

Wow!!! Where can it get some of those? I am in the process of developing an interesting tank - and these things fit the bill.
Brewski

 

[kc]

Very cool, Bud! The vermetid snail "appears" more active so is more fun to watch. But the spionidae worm... thanks, again, Sammy!!!... seems to be able to handle his tentacles unbelivably well.
Today when the snail was pulling in his meal, a tiny blue-leg decided to join him. The snail didn't seem to notice until the hermit touched its body, then it disappeared into his tube fast! and stayed in for quite a while.
I got mine on live rock. Maybe dig around in the live rock tanks for some. Good luck!

 

[kc]

Spionidae worms... very intereting in deed. First a pic: http://www.animalnetwork.com/fish2/a.../wb/photo3.asp
My search reveals they are segmented worms, a species of Polychaeta. Check this out http://www.arl.nus.edu.sg/mandar/yp/EPIC/Spionidae.html
And finally "These worms are quite small in diameter (less than 2 mm), and have two obvious palps which extend from their tubes, leading many people to misidentify them as Spionids (discussed next month). However, their length (which can reach several inches), and the length of their palps (which can reach several centimeters), rules out the tiny spionids as a possible identification. If you were to remove one of these animals from their tube, you would also see that they have a series of several modified parapodia to hold mucous bags/nets and several sets of "fan" parapodia which would confirm that it was indeed a chaetopterid."
Quite interesting. -Leslie-