Is this a Ctenophore?

[NaH2O]

I have a bunch of new SPS frags and one acro colony in quarantine right now. The quarantine was treated with interceptor due to a few acro bugs found. They have been QTd for just over 2 weeks, and I was going to put them in the display today. Well, upon inspection, I noticed a few bleached spots on the acro colony. As I stared, I could see two tentacles sticking out. I pulled the colony out of the water and noticed a "blob" in another spot, so I used some forceps to remove it. I wanted to see if what I was looking at was soft or hard. Definately soft, but very small. I racked my brain the rest of the day trying to remember what this could be. I checked the coral again this evening, and saw a bleached out spot on the other side of the colony, and I snapped a pic of the tentacles. I remembered something called a ctenophore, but according to Dr. Ron, it is typically found on soft corals and gorgonians. The tentacles I saw are so thin that I can't tell if they have the typical feather/branched appearance. So...anyone know if this could be a ctenophore, and if so, how do I eliminate them? I'm keeping everything in QT until I figure this out. Lugol's dip? I'm assuming the bleached out area is due to stinging?

Here is a pic...sorry for the quality, but it was as close as I could get to the tentacles. Note the bleached area.

 

[Beckmola24]

Following this thread, because I found something exactly like that on a piece of live rock. I very stupidly went to pull it out without tweezers and it stung my fingers....

 

[Maxx]

I cant really tell from the pic Nikki, but hwere is some Ctenophore information I was able to locate via Google....
http://faculty.washington.edu/cemills/Ctenophores.html

It doesnt sound like one from this though.

Nick

 

[NaH2O]

Nick - here is the pic I was trying to find...

Ctenophore

 

[Boomer]

The image is poor Nikki but it looks like maybe a Cteno They are also found on Caulerpa. Those tentacles look rather short on yours and Cteno's are rather long. That image you posted is often the one I use. Do you have TRA ? I use to have a website with a great pic, better than Ron's but it seems to be down. I should have saved it Wait I just remembered my new desktop search toy Here they are :lol:


http://scilib.ucsd.edu/sio/nsf/fguide/ctenophora3.html



Go to "all valid scientific names for the Phylum Ctenophora" page and look for Coeloplana or Coeloplanidae

The most famous picture is this one

 

[NaH2O]

Thanks Boomer! I'm going to try and get some better pics. The threads are very distinct - in the shape of a V. There are more than one of these that I can see. I'll use a magnifying glass in front of the camera...maybe that will help. If they are Ctenophores...is there anything I can do to get rid of them before the corals leave QT? Also, what is TRA??

 

[Beckmola24]

Would they go into the live rock??? What I pulled out of my rock looked JUST like Nikki's pic and it most deffinately stung my fingers...

 

[NaH2O]

OK - here are some better pics...still not the greatest, but as good as I could take. I zoomed in 14X and held a magnifying glass in front of the lens.

The first is the same kind of shot I posted before. The second pic is without the flash. The last pic is a couple more of these things, but a head on look. When I look at these guys from the side, I can also see 2 tentacles sticking out, but they don't seem to be as large as the first one. Any ideas? All of these are found at the base of the coral, at the outer edge where it is encrusted.

 

[Boomer]

Nikki

Those are not Cteno's, it is a form of tube worm. There are two different taxonomic groups of them and both have two tentacles, Chaetopterid or Spionid. Ron has them on one of his "worm" articles. Marc has one on his website that I ID, the image below. And they are, IIRC, in the well know hicthiker ID articles you often see on the net. I'm at a freinds 200 miles away so I have none of my links for you


Here are some images

http://images.google.com/images?q=Spionid&hl=en&lr=&sa=N&tab=wi

 

[NaH2O]

Thanks Boomer! That's it for sure. I was beginning to wonder if it was some type of worm, since those other spots resembled holes. I'm going to try and get one out to take a photo. We'll see how that task goes . I really would like to see its body now.

 

[Angelscrx]

Fascinating stuff.

 

[albert]

Nikki, the sand bed of my tank is totally covered with those worms! They do appear on the rocks also. It's very funny to see how they catch the food particles from bottom.

 

[Boomer]

Nice pics Albert, I saved them

 

[NaH2O]

Excellent pics albert!

 

[albert]

Thanks

More pictures... I was actually hunting with camera those tiny bugs crawling around on the rock.

But along with bugs there appeared a nice worm on the picture Its feeding tentacle is about 1.5", looks much longer although.

As I took a series of shots, then below you can see how the food particles are smoothly sliding down into the mouth. The time interval between the shots is 15 sec.

 

[Boomer]

Those are the tentacles of a Spaghetti worm

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-06/rs/