Ball anemone?

cpoynter

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Anyone have any idea what this is. I’ve had it living in the sand there for over two years and assumed it was a ball anemone because it has just been a few tentacles that come out after the lights go out. Just noticed that it’s huge now and has some sort of pattern on the body.
13B9E167-7B6C-4ACA-9C47-FB7456A14989.jpeg
 
Definitely not a ball anemone, but probably not a pest. There are a few kinds of sand anemones/tube worms out there... Would love to see more pictures of it when it is open, maybe we could figure out what it is.
 
I just chanced upon this image with a very similar looking feather duster worm, retracted in the absence of water. Harmless filter-feeder:
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It's not a fan worm - it has anemone like tentacles. I'll try to get a better photo tonight, but it's not in a great location and retracts when the lights come on.
 
Got another photo tonight. It’s back to looking like it did before. Like a really sparse ball anemone.
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"Ball anemone" primarily refers to a single species, Pseudocorynactis caribbeorum, in the hobby, which this anemone only loosely resembles. I am stumped...
 
I'm afraid I don't know the exact species, but it's a Ceriantharian - a tube-dwelling anemone (not a true anemone). The white part displayed above the tube in the first photo you posted is the inner "whorl" of tentacles (you can still see them down around the mouth of the nem in your follow-up photo). I suspect you saw them up like they were because it was eating, but I could be wrong. Your specimen has quite a few distinctive features (low number of transparent outer tentacles, white inner tentacles, the shape of the outer tentacles, and the patterning on the tube are the ones I can see), so if you could reach out to someone who knows a lot about these guys, you might be able to get an ID - especially if you know roughly where it came from (i.e. if you know what ocean it came from/what area of what ocean).

If I had to guess, I would guess it's a member of the Arachnactidae family, possibly Arachnanthus or Isarachnanthus genus, but that is just a guess.

If it hasn't moved at all since you first noticed it, I would assume it's a filter feeder type of tube-dwelling nem, so it's most likely harmless.
 

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