ID please?
- Thread starter malacoda
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malacoda
Valuable Member
Nope. In the center of the pics - looks like a black tube with inverted 'angel wings' around it. Whatever it is, it's up in a small nook in the rock. All I can see is what I'm assuming is the 'mouth' with the feather-like appendages around it.
I've not seen anything quite like that ... is it hard, leathery, soft, feathery? Does it retreat or close up when touched?
I'd guess some kind of feather-duster, or perhaps a bivalve of some sort - but might be that other members of the #reefsquad could help.
~Bruce
I'd guess some kind of feather-duster, or perhaps a bivalve of some sort - but might be that other members of the #reefsquad could help.
~Bruce
OP
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malacoda
Valuable Member
Best way I can describe it is soft and feathery. When relaxed and in what i assume is feeding mode, it projects about 2-3mm out from the rock. If either it or the rock it is on are lightly touched, the 'mouth' closes and the entire thing pulls in snug against the rock.
I too am thinking some kind of feather duster or bivalve. It's almost like a cross between the two... The 'mouth' looks kind of like a bivalve's siphon. And the 'feathers' are a bit like the branchiea on feather dusters.
What has me stumped though is that it doesn't retract into nor can I can't see any kind of shell like a bivalve would have ... and the 'feathers' don't seem large enough to serve as sufficient food collects for worm that diameter (the portion visible in the pick is about the size of an M&M).
I was away on vacation for a couple of weeks and don't recall it being there (or anywhere else in my tank) before I left. I'll have to keep an eye on it to see if it moves around or is a stationary critter. Pretty sure it's a filter feed and most likely harmless. Just haven't seen anything like it before and am very curious as to what it may be.
I too am thinking some kind of feather duster or bivalve. It's almost like a cross between the two... The 'mouth' looks kind of like a bivalve's siphon. And the 'feathers' are a bit like the branchiea on feather dusters.
What has me stumped though is that it doesn't retract into nor can I can't see any kind of shell like a bivalve would have ... and the 'feathers' don't seem large enough to serve as sufficient food collects for worm that diameter (the portion visible in the pick is about the size of an M&M).
I was away on vacation for a couple of weeks and don't recall it being there (or anywhere else in my tank) before I left. I'll have to keep an eye on it to see if it moves around or is a stationary critter. Pretty sure it's a filter feed and most likely harmless. Just haven't seen anything like it before and am very curious as to what it may be.
Can you touch the shell?
We saw one of these several months ago and I belive @Lionfish Lair id'd it.
I belive it's a bivalve.
Clams walk btw.
We saw one of these several months ago and I belive @Lionfish Lair id'd it.
I belive it's a bivalve.
Clams walk btw.
Lionfish Lair
Renee
Agreed. Definitely a bivalve could be a little cockle.
