Tubeworm ID help

BrianH

BrianH

Butterfly Fish
M.A.S.C Club Member
ex-officio
#1
#1
I have watching two of these tube worms develop over the past couple of weeks and have yet to identify them. They secrete a mucus web out into the water that is about 2" by 2", let particulates in the water column attach, them reingest the entire web with their catch. The whole process only takes about 5 minutes. Pretty cool to watch! Here are two pictures of the same worm with the web out. Any thoughts as far as ID, freind or foe??? They seem harmless so far but are growing at a steady rate.

 
Walter White

Walter White

Reef Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#2
#2
I have one of these as well. Also curious. I did notice the mucus as well but actually thought it was the coral it was on doing . This makes much more sense now as I was troubled by why the coral would be producing slime.
 
BrianH

BrianH

Butterfly Fish
M.A.S.C Club Member
ex-officio
#4
#4
deboy69;358846 said:
Vermatid snail (sp)? Not sure where to look on the pic
Click to expand...
It's head is out of the tube in the dead center of the picture. The tube follows along the blue coral to the left and then snakes back to the right. I know it is definitely a tube worm of some sort, just not sure what kind.
 
BrianH

BrianH

Butterfly Fish
M.A.S.C Club Member
ex-officio
#8
#8
I am going to load small rock with superglue and cover the tube opening and use a hypodermic needle to inject kalk paste through the side of the tube.
 
BrianH

BrianH

Butterfly Fish
M.A.S.C Club Member
ex-officio
#12
#12
So I opted to try the smash and crush method last night. The little boogers retreated through their tubes as fast as I crushed. As of this afternoon, one is missing or dead and the other is happily casting his mucus net from a hole in the live rock! I am going to superglue over the hole and inject with kalk paste and report back tomorrow.
 
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