Worm/ slug ID. W/ new pick!!

[Cope]

New pick
Slow mover, dose not seem to bother the zoas it's on, Bright red, @ 3" long by a 16th.
Old pick

Any one?
Dose this help?
Thanks for looking.
Cope
Gonna try to get a 10.1 mega pixel shot with my room mates new camera!

 

[Cope]

A not as close shot, to show some scale. This sucker is long!

 

[flyyyguy]

It surely does look like a slug and no nudi.

a little suspicious being as it is similar colored to what its on though. good luck with a positive ID

 

[MUCHO REEF]

Here's what I live by.

"WHEN IN DOUBT.....TAKE IT OUT"

I have no idea what it is, could very well be harmless, but when I see something I can't identify quickly, I grab my longnose surgical tweezers and I remove it ASAP.

 

[LeslieH]

Does it recoil when touched or just move with the current? Have you seen it retract? From that second picture it looks like a sponge or something sessile rather than a slug or worm. Why don't you take it out & photograph it in a dish (covered with water so it looks natural)?

 

[Cope]

No response to stimuli. IE. A poke with a stick. It can move because today it's on a different polyp.

 

[LeslieH]

Weird. I just don't recognize it from the picture. Are you in California or Canada? Do you want to send it to me for id?

 

[Cope]

Leslie
Thanks for the offer, but I think I will "grow it out" and see what I can see. If it starts causing any noticeable problems, then I will remove it and send it your way!
I'm in lake Tahoe CA, By the way I went to the museum of natural history a long time ago, must be a cool place to work?
Thanks for your time
Cope

 

[kmk2307]

Is it attached to the side of that polyp? I have no idea. It looks like a sponge to me too. Are those "tentacles" at the top of it the same length? Does it look differently at night than it does during they day?

 

[LeslieH]

By the way I went to the museum of natural history a long time ago, must be a cool place to work?
Cope [/B]

For the most part. Like any other job it has its drawbacks but the good parts are very good indeed!

 

[swsmr]

this a flat worm called Vorticeros luteus not known if it eats corals or not but i think you should remove it before it multiplies and becomes a real problem, or you can wait and find out

 

[kmk2307]

Cope, if you are going to get rid of it, I would encourage you to preserve it in high concentration ethanol (>80%, e.g. everclear) or 100% acetone and send it to Leslie or myself. If it is Vorticeros (which seems plausable to me after looking it up), it is a somewhat uncommonly collected basal bilaterian animal and would be useful in a phylogenetic study.

Does Vorticeros have symbiotic algae? Anyone know?

 

[LeslieH]

Good catch SWSMR. If it is a Vorticeros probably not V. luteus which is from the Mediterranean/Adriatic seas.

Here's a picture of one from New Zealand: http://www.seaslugforum.net/display.cfm?id=17305

 

[swsmr]

this one is most likely from the Adriatic sea, it's an uncommon hitchhiker, I'm really curious to know what kind of coral was it attached too,

 

[pagojoe]

Did I misunderstand you SWSMR, or are you guessing that this hitchhiker came from the Adriatic? If that's what you meant, it would be very unlikely. I don't think anything is collected there and sent to California for the aquarium trade?


Don

 

[swsmr]

that's exactly why I want to know what species did it come with but I think the person who posted that thread no longer cares and doesn't replay to posts any more,