Hitchhiker tube worm?

[InvertObsession]

I've only just noticed this... thing after a month of the coral being introduced to my tank. Tried figuring out what it is but I'm totally stumped. It has hairs that reflect light with a rainbow sheen as well at 3 tentacles coming from its face. Has a calcified tunnel that has bored through the skeleton of one of my blastos. Any help?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

@ISpeakForTheSeas

 

[InvertObsession]

Bump

 

[BristleWormHater]

Definitely not a typical tube worm/feather duster. A combination of a fan and tentacles is very weird. My guess would be that the coral my have just grown over the tube, instead of it actually being bored into. The blastos look pretty closed in that picture, do they usually look like that?

 

[InvertObsession]

They haven’t been completely opened up or coloured up since I got them but I think it’s a mix of that and picking them up which made them particularly closed up in those photos.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

@ISpeakForTheSeas

Daylithos sp. Flabelligerid worm - A.K.A. Coral and Rock-boring Cage Worm. The fan is the cephalic cage that the common name comes from (it's a bunch of specialized chaetae - bristles - that spread out around the head) and the tentacles are the palps (the feeding tentacles).

Neat, and this is the first I've personally seen an aquarium, though they're not unheard of - they don't seem to cause issues (though I imagine you wouldn't want too many for your corals' sake, since they dig through the skeleton for their tunnels).

I wouldn't be able to ID the specimen in the tube, but if it dies or you otherwise remove it from the tube, I could walk you through getting pics to ID it at the species level.

->It's worth noting here that there is almost no information available on these worms' diets - it is suspected that most Flabelligerids feed primarily on "phytodetritus" (be that phytoplankton - live or dead - or detritus from various algae species, I'm not sure) and may occasionally supplement that with meaty detritus or (thought to be more likely) things like bacteria.* If you are able to note anything about its diet, that would be great information, and - as far as I know - useful info to the scientific community that researches these critters; please document any info here for me!

For some pics to compare with (both of worms in the tubes and out):

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/368776862_Four_new_species_of_coral-_and_rock-boring_polychaetes_Daylithos_Annelida_Flabelligeridae_from_the_Pacific_Ocean

*Source (the link in the quote below now has the paper behind a paywall - I hate when sites lock papers away - but the link to download the Appendix still works for free; the Academia.edu link is accessible with a free account, and you don't need any special credentials or anything for the account):

Diet of Worms Emended: An Update of Polychaete Feeding Guilds

Diet of Worms Emended: An Update of Polychaete Feeding Guilds

www.academia.edu

*Source:
Diet of Worms Emended: An Update of Polychaete Feeding Guilds - Appendix A - Family-by-Family Review
(The paper)
https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-marine-010814-020007 (The link you can download the Appendix from)

Diet of Worms Emended: An Update of Polychaete Feeding Guilds | Annual Reviews

Polychaetes are common in most marine habitats and dominate many infaunal communities. Functional guild classification based on taxonomic identity and morphology has linked community structure to ecological function. The functional guilds now include osmotrophic siboglinids as well as...

www.annualreviews.org

 

[BristleWormHater]

Daylithos sp. Flabelligerid worm - A.K.A. Coral and Rock-boring Cage Worm. The fan is the cephalic cage that the common name comes from (it's a bunch of specialized chaetae - bristles - that spread out around the head) and the tentacles are the palps (the feeding tentacles).

Neat, and this is the first I've personally seen an aquarium, though they're not unheard of - they don't seem to cause issues (though I imagine you wouldn't want too many for your corals' sake, since they dig through the skeleton for their tunnels).

I wouldn't be able to ID the specimen in the tube, but if it dies or you otherwise remove it from the tube, I could walk you through getting pics to ID it at the species level.

->It's worth noting here that there is almost no information available on these worms' diets - it is suspected that most Flabelligerids feed primarily on "phytodetritus" (be that phytoplankton - live or dead - or detritus from various algae species, I'm not sure) and may occasionally supplement that with meaty detritus or (thought to be more likely) things like bacteria.* If you are able to note anything about its diet, that would be great information, and - as far as I know - useful info to the scientific community that researches these critters; please document any info here for me!

For some pics to compare with (both of worms in the tubes and out):

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/368776862_Four_new_species_of_coral-_and_rock-boring_polychaetes_Daylithos_Annelida_Flabelligeridae_from_the_Pacific_Ocean

*Source (the link in the quote below now has the paper behind a paywall - I hate when sites lock papers away - but the link to download the Appendix still works for free; the Academia.edu link is accessible with a free account, and you don't need any special credentials or anything for the account):

Diet of Worms Emended: An Update of Polychaete Feeding Guilds

Diet of Worms Emended: An Update of Polychaete Feeding Guilds

www.academia.edu

Pretty neat, it's like a cross between a feather duster and a parchment worm!

 

[BristleWormHater]

@InvertObsession Try to get some good pictures of it, there's hardly any on the internet!

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Pretty neat, it's like a cross between a feather duster and a parchment worm!

Yeah, they're pretty cool little critters!