Very Strange Creature (pics coming soon)

[Logzor]

I picked up a rock with a few small patches of zoo's on it from a local reefer.

On this rock there is some kind of organism that is attached to the rock and has a small purple cap or "hat" that it lifts up and down. Overnight it released a spider web like substance several inches long.

I watched it, just a few minutes ago, pull this entire web back into itself.

The creature is quiet small, maybe .5 cm in diameter. Every once in awhile you can see two little black antenna or spikes coming up when it lifts up its "cap".

Any clue as to what this is and if it is reef safe?

 

[Logzor]

Here is the pic:

 

[pagojoe]

It should be a vermetid snail, and may be in the genus Serpulorbis. They get fairly large, but are generally considered to be harmless, except that they may irritate corals.

http://biology.fullerton.edu/biol461/im/ft/ft05-25.html

Cheers,



Don

 

[SINNERMF]

My mom has several of these in her tank. They use thier "strings" to grab food from the water then they bring it in.