ID help - is this something IN my coral?

[pentelicus]

Feel free to laugh if this is a stupid question...
I got a piece of coral yesterday (side question, it looks like frogspawn, but I guess it is hammer coral??) and this evening I saw one of the heads retract a bit, and then this feather duster looking thing came out, see the pic. It kept protruding and then retracting, looking kindof like it was feeding. It is definitely coming from inside the coral head. What is that?

 

[matttaylor]

harmless filter feeding worm of some sort. And judging by the picture it is a frogspawn

 

[pentelicus]

Crazy. The strangest part is it looks like it is INSIDE the coral.

 

[Paintbug]

its probably a barnacle. cool little filter feeders.

 

[casingbill]

frogspawn with a feather duster

 

[bertoni]

I'd guess barnacle or perhaps a hydroid or other sort of polyp.

 

[TGBrown]

Barnacle....it does live inside the structure of the coral, and extends it's feeders (the part you're seeing); you'll see that rotate around in the water current as it feeds.

 

[pentelicus]

Cool - Yeah it rotates quickly, and then retracts only to pop back out and spin again. Very neat to watch.

 

[complexbooger]

ok i know for a fact they are able to damage your coral. I had a big beautiful torch, saw one of these and didnt know what it was. it got bigger and bigger growing over my torch. it ended up dieing. also it would actually grab onto the strand of torch and suck it in

my 2 cents

=JonBlazes

 

[TGBrown]

http://www.ronshimek.com/Animal Groups 4 Crustaceans.htm#Barnacles

 

[EdKruzel]

This type of barnacle is harmless and probably can't get enough food to compete with the growth rate of the coral. Barnacles thrive in near polluted (and polluted) waters. If you feed fine particulate foods such as DT's it may survive, but more than likely will starve within a few months.