Unidentified 2' Worm

[swiseman]

I will try to give as accurate of a physical discription as the attached photo is very bad. I saw this in my tank tonight after lights went out. I would say that is is between 18-24" in length and only about 2mm (3/32") in girth. The color was dark gray, but not black. I could not see any eyes or a mouth. It moved extremely fast answam like an eel. I moved across the front of the tank when i turned on the actinics o get a pic. Unfortunately, it moved too fast to get a picture without the halides on. It looked like a ribbon hung in the wind. That is the best discription I can give. Unfortunately, I now have two as it wam into a Tunze Stream and got shredded. The two large pieces seem to be swimming and a smaller piece appears to have sunk to the bottom. I will see if I can recover the small piece and take a picture.

My first fear was the Worm Incident from Steve Weast's Oregon.com site.

Can anyone make a reasonable guess as to what it might be. The only recent additions are a good sized Galaxy coral and a small Hammer frag with one head, both from a local reefer.

 

[B16A2NER]

I saw the worm on the oregon site. It doesn't look anything like that

 

[swiseman]

Agreed they are not even similar. This did not appear to have a segmented body nore did it have any kind of bristles. It was completely smooth. I only got to see it for about two minuits and now it is no where to be seen.

 

[B16A2NER]

Was it moving extremely fast because of your powerhead or because its alive? It looks like some sort of coral expelled goo

 

[swiseman]

It is definately alive, it swam like an eel. It was swimming in a low flow zone on the side of the tank before I turned on the lights and then it swam the length directly into the current of the stream. It was fast.

 

[kmk2307]

If you get a chance to post more pictures that would be great. Right now I am clueless. Were there eight long white bands? Were each of those bands made up of what look like tiny little combs? It might be a Ctenophore though I didn't know any of them were quite so vermiform (worm shaped).

Kevin

 

[swiseman]

No coloration at all. It was very dark grey and If it was not so thin I would have sworn that it was an eel. I did not see it again after it went through the Tunze, but, I will be waiting up for it on the weekend and this time I will try and feed it toi keep it out in the open until I can get the Halides fired up. I could not get a good picture without the lights as the reflection off the glass was too much with the flash on.

 

[romunov]

Reminds me of sessile Ctenophora.

 

[kmk2307]

Any more updates? If it is a Ctenophore, it is a member of the Class Nuda.

Kevin