Carnivorous irridescent worm ID?

[rayadog]

Unseen worm that can be irridescent? Anyways I fumbled. Now I fear I gave him the taste for clam. I doubt a shrimp trap will work especially well but.. i could try. Or try this same method again. Maybe leave the clam piece on the floor in front of the hole. Y’all see it flash crazy? I’m afraid I just gave it more strength with a nice healthy meal. Pretty sure I counted 3 tentacles but predominantly the 2 long ones.

Unimportant: I was using longer tongs that separated at the tip when squeezed to hard, basically just dropping pieces of clam into the flow at that point. Then this tighter tongs smushed the clam on one arm and I didn’t want to shake violently to get it off and risk losing another piece.







I can’t find any media on eunice worms that happen to show wavy tentacles like this

 

[DaJMasta]

I don't know how you're seeing iridescence with monochromatic light as your source, but I think there's a strong chance those aren't worms. They look a lot like serpent star legs to me, and it's pretty normal behavior for them to stay in one place most of the time and extend their legs out of the rock at night.

The scary worms you read about are generally a LOT bigger (thicker, longer, etc.) and the easiest identification is a clear picture of their face/mouth.

 

[rayadog]

Thanks for the reply.

Maybe bioluminescence is more accurate? Or sounds better? It is 100% a polychaete worm based on it’s rapid slithering recession back into the rock upon switching the lamp from red to white light the morning prior. There was just much more to obviously see, it’s actual body, it’s movement, when I did that. I would love to find it a bristle star. I was testing it’s response and hoped to grab it with this test. The fact that it’s bioluminescing (made up word) such under stress… I wasn’t even considering bristle stars anymore.

The rock cavity plays to the worm than to me, it’s hard to see the worm at all.

 

[DaJMasta]

Bioluminescence would be generating light, iridescence is reflecting light in color determined by the texture of the surface - but if your light is red, you can only ever reflect red, because that's all that's in the illumination spectrum.

In any case, from the videos, I don't see either. I know in deep sea diving that bioluminescence (which is very common) is very difficult to photograph because of how faint it is and how difficult it is to get long exposures when everything is moving.

It looks the most like the few inch wide serpent stars in my tank, and generally they do have a feeding response and do wave their arms around in similar ways. If it's a worm, I'd say it's then more likely to be some of the appendages of a spaghetti worm, but again this isn't a polychaete. The video isn't all that sharp or well lit, maybe there will be more help if you're able to get some better pictures of it (and pictures are generally sharper.)

You could try using a simple trap to lure it farther out or trap it altogether - something like a bottle with an inverted neck and a piece of food in it is probably sufficient.

 

[rayadog]

In the third clip, ~15 sec. There is definitely a shimmer of something. Specifically after I miss with the tongs a flicker of something ripples down the body in the rock cavity. Video may be buffering at low quality. Hoping for another opinion. I’ll admit the first 2 videos are trash; before I cleaned the glass.

 

[DaJMasta]

I see what you mean, it's subtle, but may be bioluminescence. Reminds me of an electric flame scallop, but it's not their tentacles that light

 

[rayadog]

I see what you mean, it's subtle, but may be bioluminescence. Reminds me of an electric flame scallop, but it's not their tentacles that light

I think I owe you one. I apologize lol. I was doing more research today and found evidence bristle stars can bioluminesce and stick their arms out in that specific weird way. The optimisim in me hopes it is. I will probably check again tomorrow morning… I would thing I could pull a bristle star out if the rock. Something about when I first saw it so convinced me otherwise. I’ll try to get a video snapping the flash on it quick.