Long white antenna hitchhiker ID

[farfromsea]

Hello everyone

A few months ago a tube was formed out of sand (imagine if the sand was literally glued to some sort of tube).

Today I wake up and my cyphastrea has been pushed to the ground and the tube is still there (although it has changed position) and there are long antenna reaching towards the substrate. The antenna must be 2-3 inches long. Any thoughts on what that is?

Was going to finally epoxy cyphastrea but I'm concerned about that hitchhiker.

Definitely not vermetid snails have hundreds of those in my tank (as shown below)

 

[billdogg]

spaghetti worm. Generally harmless. I would blame a roaming snail or other critter (my urchin loves to rearrange for me).

Oops - see next post for correct ID!

 

[Grimreaperz]

Sounds like spinoid worms actually. Here is a link. http://www.melevsreef.com/node/355

They will create a tube out of substrate just harmless filter feeders. I would prefer to have them then vertimid Snails....those things are a P.I.T.A
Cant seem to get rid of them...

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

 

[farfromsea]

Thanks! Looks exactly like a spionid worm.

Could quite possibly be my giant turbo snail that thing motivated me to finally purchase epoxy and not rely on shoving plugs into nooks and crannies/gravity

 

[billdogg]

Sounds like spinoid worms actually. Here is a link. http://www.melevsreef.com/node/355

They will create a tube out of substrate just harmless filter feeders. I would prefer to have them then vertimid Snails....those things are a P.I.T.A
Cant seem to get rid of them...

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

Yes - thank you - momentary brain fade -

 

[Remy LeBeau]

The one in the first picture looks more like the Phyllochaetopterus sp outlined in the link below. (Figure 10.) The ones in second picture appear to be Spionid worms. Their tentacles are not as long and the tubes are usually hard. Vermetid snails is another possibility for the second one too though.

http://www.reefcleaners.org/nuisance-algae-id-guide

 

[Remy LeBeau]

The one in the first picture looks more like the Phyllochaetopterus sp outlined in the link below. (Figure 10.) The ones in second picture appear to be Spionid worms. Their tentacles are not as long and the tubes are usually hard. Vermetid snails is another possibility for the second one too though.

http://www.reefcleaners.org/nuisance-algae-id-guide

Woops... The link above was the wrong one. The right one is posted below.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-05/rs/

 

[farfromsea]

Woops... The link above was the wrong one. The right one is posted below.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-05/rs/

Hmm fascinating and quite possibly a correct identification? It is hard to say since they look so similar. This particular tube has been only in the rock for months, rather than migrating into the sand bed but like Shimek says in that article the spionid is rare in the reef tank so perhaps the Phyllochaetopterus is the more likely specimen.

I also had a strange incident where my giant snail got stuck on some clump in the sand bed and almost fell out of its shell to the extent I thought it was dying. Makes me thinks it wandered into a mat of Phyllochaetopterus... I have a somewhat DSB because of my jawfish aspirations

I'm voting vermetid for the second picture because there are no long tentacles that extend and it has that characteristic spiraled end where it attaches to the rock.