christmas tree worm

[LeslieH]

Questions from fellow worm lovers are always welcome & appreciated!


Looking over a couple of papers I see that P. stellatus is thought by at least one researcher to be restricted to the Caribbean/tropical Atlantic so something from the Indo-Pacific would be another species.

On some of your Spirobranchus images Dendro the operculum shows very clearly - it's a slanted plate with one or more antler-like spines coming off the base. The operculum of Pomatostegus "stellatus" is a slanted plate without spines but with up to 4 stacked plates. Both are often overgrown by algae which makes it especially difficult to figure out which species.

There seems to be a few reliable color differences. Spirobranchus operculums often have a reddish rim; it's lacking in Pomatostegus. Spirobranchus crowns may be banded or solid yellow, blue, red, white, etc. The pics & specimens I've seen of Pomatostegus show banded crowns usually in shades of white, red, and/or brown. While the operculum on the little blue one is facing down & looks overgrown as well the color makes me think it's Spirobranchus.

Yup, the emerging legs belong to a mini brittle star, and the iridescent hairs do belong to a flabelligerid.

 

[dendro982]

Most grateful for the provided information, Leslie!
Always wanted to now more about the Christmas three worms and feather dusters, they are my weak spot

 

[LeslieH]

Polychaetes in general are my weakness!

 

[LeslieH]

Polychaetes in general are my weakness (although I do admit to a fondness for shrimp & crabs)

 

[dendro982]

If you still here, Leslie, can you take a look for a few other Christmas tree rocks inhabitants:

- Is it barnacle? Fan, that appears for a second-two, then hides, then appears again.

And these mounds, no tentacles were seen:

- Here are small borrows with the two tentacles, coming out, very small, are they Spionid worms?

- The white creature above the red Spirobranchus, here it shows:

and hides:

- this feather duster, may be 1.5" in diameter:

These are multiplying.

- are these vermetids?

Will continue.

 

[dendro982]

- and these, coming from the holes, horseshoe-shaped crowns:

Sorry for the quality, too far in the tank.

- And, if all of them are living on the same rock, should they have the similar requirements?
- Or can I spot the shift in the tank conditions to the undesirable, if only one of them stars multiplying, but not anothers (like the biggest feather dusters on the picture)?
- Can I do something to make Spirobranchus multiply, instead of these drab feather dusters, or it's just a nature of the particular animal, more difficult to reproduce (larvae stage or something else)?

(You see - started with ID, and now looking for the advice on influencing the balance of powers )

 

[LeslieH]

Super, more pictures.
1- living barnacle in the middle between a flabelligerid & brittle star legs
2- dead barnacles. Often sponges or other animals will live inside the dead barnacles; sometimes enough debris collects inside that a detritivore will live there
3- possibly spionids. Are the two appendages smooth & able to curl & twist or are they stiffer & jointed? Many small crustaceans like amphipods & tanaids take up residence in empty burrows or build their own tubes.
4-5 - Not clear enough but the appendages look jointed which would mean crustacean
6- sorry, probably 99% of all feather dusters can't be identified from images alone. Without seeing the tube I can't even tell if this is a sabellid or a serpulid.
7-8-9- vermetids. Some species can be identified just by the coloration of the foot that blocks the tube opening. I sure wish there was a photo guide to live vermetids.
Second message - Do the horseshoe shaped fans move in & out? If so they're barnacles which use their feathery feet to capture food & carry it to the mouth. Fanworms keep their crowns out unless a predator comes by; food is moved down the radioles to the mouth by cilia.

They're all filter feeders but probably on different size particles. The fact that you have all of these means the system is healthy & doing well. I'd worry that if you try to skew the system the result will be negative. For info on Spirobranchus breeding, why don't you go over to Project DIBS at http://www.projectdibs.com/ . It's a collaborative project site for hobbyists interesting in breeding reef inverts. Good luck.

 

[seapug]

Leslie H-- thanks for all your info. It's very educational. Since we have your attention, perhaps you can aid me in the ID of some sort of burrowing creature that has appeared in my CTW Porites boulder and seems to be feeding on the polyps surrounding it's hole. It doesn't seem to be bothering the CTWs, but it's definitely damaging the Porites coral.

I assume it's some sort of worm or barnacle-type crustacean, but the only part I ever see is a hair-like thread extension that comes out of the hole and rapidly pokes in a circular motion at the Porites polyps and has created a "burned" white dead zone in the coral polyps for about 1" around the hole (so far). I could take a photo, but it wouldn't do much good as this feeding needle thing is all I ever see and looks like a single brownish colored hair. I periodically see spurts of gravel coming out of the hole, so it must be something powerful enough to dig through stone. It's hole is about 1/8 inch across and does not seem to have any sort of operculum or lid. I've not been able to find any references online to what it might be. Do you have any ideas off-hand or advice for places to find information about what it might be? Big thanks in advance.

 

[LeslieH]

My only advice - and you won't like it - is to chip away the portion containing the creature & either open it up or send it to me for id. From your description I have absolutely no idea what it could be!

 

[seapug]

oooh, ouch......due to its location that would probably involve destroying the entire coral and CTW colony. I'll keep an eye on it and see if I can catch a better view. If not, and the damage spreads too much, I'm just going to epoxy the hole and encase this evil creature forever (or until it borrows out the bottom of the rock). That probably sends shivers down the spine of every invert biologist, but I can't bear the thought of sacrificing my coral and worm colony for a polyp eating brown needle critter! I'll keep you updated. Thanks again...

 

[dendro982]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9532567#post9532567 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by LeslieH
...3- possibly spionids. Are the two appendages smooth & able to curl & twist or are they stiffer & jointed? Many small crustaceans like amphipods & tanaids take up residence in empty burrows or build their own tubes.

6- sorry, probably 99% of all feather dusters can't be identified from images alone. Without seeing the tube I can't even tell if this is a sabellid or a serpulid.

Second message - Do the horseshoe shaped fans move in & out? If so they're barnacles which use their feathery feet to capture food & carry it to the mouth. Fanworms keep their crowns out unless a predator comes by; food is moved down the radioles to the mouth by cilia.

- Spionids in question: will watch more closely, but so far they come close, but are not jointed, and mostly open, rarely hidden - like feather dusters.

- Feather duster: no tube, only opening in the stone. Will try to get a shot of it later. But if requirements are the same, as for Spirobranchus, it's, probably, not so important. Was wondering, why ones are multiplying, and others - not.

- horseshoe shaped fans: opened most of the time, no barnacle-like movements.

Can you share any other advanced links to the feather dusters and Christmas tree worms keeping, other than aquariumist magazines' articles (already checked them)?

Thank you for all the provided information, really appreciate this.

 

[LeslieH]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9538956#post9538956 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dendro982
- Feather duster: no tube, only opening in the stone. Will try to get a shot of it later. But if requirements are the same, as for Spirobranchus, it's, probably, not so important. Was wondering, why ones are multiplying, and others - not.

The ones with pelagic larvae are the ones that don't reproduce in tanks. The small ones that rapidly multiple have asexual reproduction. some species - includng a few large ones - have brooded larvae that simply crawl away from the parent's tube rather than float around in the water column.

- horseshoe shaped fans: opened most of the time, no barnacle-like movements.

I'm not sure about those. The image is too small & fuzzy.

Can you share any other advanced links to the feather dusters and Christmas tree worms keeping, other than aquariumist magazines' articles (already checked them)?

Info on keeping will mostly be in the reefer articles you've already seen. Research papers center more on life history, settlement, speciation, etc. You're more than ready though to start sifting through them for additional info. Many can be found via google. The reference section at the end of each paper will lead to more. PM me if you can't find a particular paper; I may be able to find pdfs.

 

[dendro982]

Thank you, most kind of you.

The in-depth articles, that I already found, unfortunately, has no practical implementation at my level of reef keeping. Same for the Project DIBS - there are not much info at all (or I just can't use the site properly ). Seems, that it's somebody's PHD thesis data collection.

Will continue ask the keepers.