View Full Version : Invert ID
votek
05-20-2003, 12:55 AM
There is a dark colored slug-looking invert crawling on my glass. It looks black and greyish with small white tenticles, almost like spines that it appears to move with. It is worm-shaped and VERY slow moving.
Any ideas?
ChilDawg
05-20-2003, 7:21 AM
Try Googling "Bristleworms" and see if that's about right.
VoodooChild
05-20-2003, 10:59 PM
Yeah probably a bristleworm. There's alot of species and probably many dozens in your tank. Good things. Help stir up the sand bed. There's a good article right now over in www.reefcentral.com/ that you can check out if you want to learn more.
What are its approximate dimensions and how many small white tentacles are we talking about?
I've looked in every book I know and I've nor found a picture of what Im looking at.
Its NOT a bristleworm. Not only does it not behave like one, but it does not have the same characteristics.
THe worm is very fat, probably 1/4 of an inch in diamete. The white tenticles are not small and planced in even rows. They are randomly asorted on his body and they are long, probably nother 1/4 inch in length. THey are white and fade to black down on the body.
Please buy/borrow a digital camera...I really wanna see this little fella :)
ChilDawg
05-22-2003, 7:57 AM
I agree...this is intriguing! :)
It's some kind of Nudibranch. I have one in my tank that is kinda greenish-brown, spiky and crawls on the glass. Probably some long lost twin brother =)
kreblak
05-22-2003, 8:49 AM
I'm with Corax, it's probably a nudibranch. What does it eat?
ChilDawg
05-22-2003, 9:07 AM
If they are nudibranchs, you may be able to find a pic on this site...or at least something close enough to tell you for sure: http://www.divegallery.com/
mogurnda
05-22-2003, 9:11 AM
Might I suggest a cucumber. It's really hard to tell without a pic, though.
ChilDawg
05-22-2003, 9:17 AM
http://www.darwinfoundation.org/marine/FAQcuke.html
Corax
05-22-2003, 12:21 PM
Cucumbers tend to be sand bed or rock dwellers, not glass climbers. However, it could be. WE NEED A PIC! =)
mogurnda
05-22-2003, 1:26 PM
My hidden cukes did some glass crawling at night for a while after the LR arrived. They're settled in their hidey-holes now.
Here's what I think. Bristleworms move with their segmental parapodia, but they go fast. Nudis can have spikes, but don't move with them, so I'm ruling them out. Cukes have tube feet, which might look like the spikes votek describes, and they move painfully slowly.
Brilliant analysis, which will be disproven when we have a picture.
He's disapeared again. I will look for him and see if I can grab a picture. I have a pretty good camera...but its hard to get it away form the other members of the household :mad:
ANyways...gimmy a day or so and I'll have one up.
votek
05-28-2003, 10:01 PM
http://www.sfx.cc/Images/Fish/ID1.jpg
http://www.sfx.cc/Images/Fish/ID2.jpg
So...anyone got some ideas?
mogurnda
05-29-2003, 12:24 PM
If those spiky things have suction cups, it's a cucumber. Looks just like my hidden cukes when they (very rarely) crawl around. I can't find any pictures, but the genus name is pseudothyone. Where is your rock from?
My rocks came from my LFS. Its a mix of different kinds. However he came in on either the live rock he had, or, the Florida Aquaculturued.
His live rock is year(s) old. Im not sure where tis from or how old though. :(
mogurnda
05-31-2003, 10:16 AM
My cukes came in on aquacultured live rock from Tampa Bay Saltwater. All I ever see of them now are the tentacles extending from rocks, sweeping food in at dinner time.