I was wondering how do feather duster worms reproduce? I got some LR which had a quater sized feather duster stuck to a rock, now I was looking at the rock and saw 2 more little ones, where did they come from?
How do Worms reproduce?
- Thread starter Yuri De Lima
- Start date
From WWM:
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http://www.wetwebmedia.com/feather.htm
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Reproduction:
Those faithful readers of these wanna be formula survey pieces might have noticed an oversight re repro. Nay, twas intentional. These worms have bizarre and varied modes. As a boy in the P.I. I was familiar with a practice of collecting certain "native" marine foods with baskets, timing our efforts with the tides and lighting. Some time later, it's dawned on me we were collecting (and eating) epitokes of polychaete worms. Believe me, I'm not making this up; some species basically break in half, the rear portion forming it's own "head", swims off and reproduces in the upper water column."http://www.wetwebmedia.com/feather.htm
The vast majority of polychaetes are gonochoristic (separate sexes) and reproduce by gamete dispersal in one way or another. Many species, including common amphinomids like in our tank reproduce with epitokes as in Grins' post. These segments are what release the gametes eventually. You'll see them in your tank on some nights as really short, wriggling (almost vibrating) worms in the water column. At other times, they can simply broadcast the gametes directly into the water column (big mess). BTW. Palola spp. are what are famous for their mass epitoke release--then the natives run by and catch them en masse and eat them as a delicacy :drool: :headshake2:
That reminds me...I came across this video of a bristleworm spawning last week:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-wP-kZM2aw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-wP-kZM2aw