Little green wormy thingy

dsinsocal · Jun 4, 2019

I'm never disappointed in the steady stream of new and wonderful creatures that seem to magically appear. I turned my gyre back on after feeding time tonight and this just came casually drifting out of the rock work.

Anyone have any idea what this is, or how it possibly got into my tank?

All of my rock is Reef Cleaners clean rock, and I dip every single coral. I guess it persisted through the dip... which is pretty scary.

dsinsocal · Jun 4, 2019

He's small.... That coil probably isn't more than a 1/4" wide

Dancingmad · Jun 4, 2019

Looks like a tentacle off a nem or coral to me. My clownfish will pluck a tentacle off my nems from time to time and see something similar.

Could it be a tentacle off a nem or lps (e.g. Hammer / Torch)?

dsinsocal · Jun 5, 2019

I don't have an anemone, or a hammer that color. I have a torch that is kinda-sorta that color I guess, but my clown doesn't go anywhere near him. It was right after feeding, so I guess it's possible one of the overzealous wrasses got a mouthful of torch tentacle while chasing some mysis, but this little thing didn't appear to have an open wound, which I would expect to see if it had been freshly bitten.

Also, will torch tentacle tips (say that 5 times fast) move around on their own like a worm? This thing looked like it was crawling around the dish.

I put him in a safe space in a holding tank just to see what becomes of it.

Purplelobst92 · Jun 5, 2019

dsinsocal said:
I don't have an anemone, or a hammer that color. I have a torch that is kinda-sorta that color I guess, but my clown doesn't go anywhere near him. It was right after feeding, so I guess it's possible one of the overzealous wrasses got a mouthful of torch tentacle while chasing some mysis, but this little thing didn't appear to have an open wound, which I would expect to see if it had been freshly bitten.

Also, will torch tentacle tips (say that 5 times fast) move around on their own like a worm? This thing looked like it was crawling around the dish.

I put him in a safe space in a holding tank just to see what becomes of it.

sometimes you won't even notice a tentacle has fallen off, maybe the torch stung something and dropped the sweeper off to cause lasting damage seen this happen in a coral fight before.

samnaz · Jun 5, 2019

Definitely a torch tentacle. Not sure how or why. But the bulbular tip is certainly indicative of a torch tip.

ScottR · Jun 5, 2019

Definitely does look like a torch. Sometimes torches just drop tentacles. I had a fallow tank and lost some. Could’ve been a shrimp (no peppermints) fishing for food.

OP, can you a zoomed out but focused pic OR just compare it to your torch?

blueedge · Jun 6, 2019

Saltwater worm they get really big. Look that up ..

blueedge · Jun 6, 2019

I think coral safe

dsinsocal · Jun 6, 2019

Thanks everyone. I think you guys were on the money with the torch idea. What threw me was the independent movement. I didn't realize detached torch tentacles would move on their own.

ScottR · Jun 6, 2019

dsinsocal said:
Thanks everyone. I think you guys were on the money with the torch idea. What threw me was the independent movement. I didn't realize detached torch tentacles would move on their own.

Without water movement, coral tentacles would be still. They don’t move on their own. So even detached, they’d move just as they would attached with water flow.

samnaz · Jun 6, 2019

ScottR said:
Without water movement, coral tentacles would be still. They don’t move on their own. So even detached, they’d move just as they would attached with water flow.

Nah, they certainly do/can move on their own. Turn off all flow and spot feed your corals (something like reef roids) and watch them move on their own.

Even simply disturbing a torch coral (for example) by giving it a quick nudge, dropping it, etc., it will move on its own and retract/close up. Many corals are capable of moving and reacting to stimuli in such a way.

ScottR · Jun 6, 2019

samnaz said:
Nah, they certainly do/can move on their own. Turn off all flow and spot feed your corals (something like reef roids) and watch them move on their own.

Even simply disturbing a torch coral (for example) by giving it a quick nudge, dropping it, etc., it will move on its own and retract.

Yes true.

Sweepers too actually. I guess more specifically I should have said without flow they don’t dance around.

samnaz · Jun 6, 2019

ScottR said:
Yes true. Sweepers too actually. I guess more specifically I should have said without flow they don’t dance around.

Hm... Are you sure of that? ;-)

dsinsocal said:
Also, will torch tentacle tips (say that 5 times fast) move around on their own like a worm? This thing looked like it was crawling around the dish.

This makes me wonder...

I cannot confirm or deny a torch tentacle can dance around on its own after being dislodged. Haven’t seen it myself but it seems possible.

@dsinsocal do you still have the specimen in question alive in said holding tank?

dsinsocal · Jun 6, 2019

samnaz said:
@dsinsocal do you still have the specimen in question alive in said holding tank?

I don't, unfortuntely. It was still there last night, but it got progressively smaller over time and when I came in this morning to check on it, it was gone. It either melted completely away, or got small enough for what littler current there was to pull it into the HOB filter.

Disappointing. I hoped maybe I was discovering a new species or something.

Purplelobst92 · Jun 6, 2019

dsinsocal said:
I don't, unfortuntely. It was still there last night, but it got progressively smaller over time and when I came in this morning to check on it, it was gone. It either melted completely away, or got small enough for what littler current there was to pull it into the HOB filter.

Disappointing. I hoped maybe I was discovering a new species or something.

yep losing tentacles can be a sure sign of polyp bailout, too bad looks like it was a pretty nice torch.

eggplantparrot · Jun 6, 2019

if it steadily got smaller and smaller then it for sure is a tentacle. I've accidentally knocked a couple of tentacle tips off of my frogspawn, I've also seen one that just came off without my interference (maybe it was fish) and they will slowly shrink then disappear.