Bioluminescent worm?

[JosefDevaty]

Tonight as I was laying in bed watching some TV I noticed a neon green flash come from my live rock. It was bright enough for me to notice it being 8 or so feet from my tank. I got up and looked closer. It was a small (1/4in) round white worm on the liverock that came with a maricultured Fiji acro I bought a couple of weeks ago. I tried to get some pictures with my cellphone but it was too dark. It flashed 6 or so times with 10-15 sec intervals between the flashes. Ive never heard of anything like this. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[LeslieH]

That's common enough that I can't tell you which worm. It may be a defensive response to something picking at it or a spawning signal.

 

[JosefDevaty]

Ah ok. I figured someone on this board would know. Nothing was around the worm but it definitely seemed like a signal of some sort due to the pauses between flashes. Pretty cool though. I have my own nighttime light show in my tank.

 

[Grandreef 2]

I read that some species of noturnal worms will create a flash of bioluminescents only a few times per year. This is part of a mating ritual.

 

[JoeCreature]

Many polychaetes use the process of epitoky to reproduce. In some species such as Odontosyllis enopla epitokes are known to bioluminesce.

 

[chewitback]

I just experienced something of the similar in my tank. For 1 night (that I observed anyway... Who knows how long it went on before that) my tank was alive with little flashes of light, about 2 hours after the lights went out and lasted for at least 3 hours that night. Hundreds of those little buggers. The next night there were far less flashing about, and I haven't seen them since. That was about a week or two ago.