Peanut Worm pictures

[melev]

I posted these in Reef Discussion because I knew lots of people hadn't seen them before, but I left out the Invertebrate crowd over here.

When I was moving corals recently, I discovered a peanut worm. Since I've never had one that was out in the open, I grabbed it and my camera.

On a towel, out of water.

Next I put it in the tiny Calcium test vial from my Salifert kit since it was handy, and shot a few pictures.

Normally, I've only seen the striped section in my rockwork, and when light hit it, it quickly retracted. This one didn't seem to mind the light at all, and I got to see what looks like a flowery polyp poke out every so often. It is obviously the mouth, but I've never seen it before. Neat!

Here are a couple more pictures of the peanut worm without the feathery tip, the way I've always seen them.

I put him in the angled tank, so maybe I'll encounter it in the future again.

 

[Elysia]

Re: Peanut Worm pictures

Thanks for posting this. Peanut worms have always confused me, because I usually only ever see photos of them like this:

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14025040#post14025040 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
When I was moving corals recently, I discovered a peanut worm. Since I've never had one that was out in the open, I grabbed it and my camera.

But, like you, the animal that I have seen in my rockwork has stripes, as seen in your photo, below:

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14025040#post14025040 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev

I had assumed that my peanut worm was a different species than the one normally pictured in reference guides; now I know that, when they retract, you simply don't see those stripes! Thanks so much for posting.

 

[LeslieH]

Cool pics!

 

[LeslieH]

Incidentally, a lot of different sipunc species have the stripes.

Sipunc bodies are divided into two parts: the main body is called the trunk while the retractable "neck" is the introvert. The mouth is at the tip of the introvert. Tentacles either surround the mouth or form a horse-shoe around a specialized sensory structure called the nuchal organ; in either case they pick up food particles & carry them to the mouth or directly to the gut by retracting. Being soft bodied without much in the way of defense they live buried in sediment or within crevices, only extending the introvert out for food. If that get snapped off they can grow a new one. Rob Toonen's got an excellent page on them at http://www.reefs.org/library/aquarium_net/0497/0497_4.html

 

[melev]

Thanks Leslie. I'll have to read over that link for sure.

 

[Micer]

I just saw one of these the other day in my tank and had no idea what it was aside from being a worm. The stripped end would extend down and the flower/mouth would expose as it ate something. Very cool, glad to know what it is.

 

[dendro982]

Excellent info, thanks! Have them too.

 

[chromiumlux]

Neat. I'll be on the lookout for them in my tank