Spiney clear thing with tentacles???

Hello everyone!

I am new to reef keeping, and have a hitchhiker on my live rock that I can't seem to find an ID for. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I don't have a camera capable of taking a good enough picture for it to show up, so I will do my best to describe it :

This thing has the shape of an urchin, but it doesn't move (been in the same spot for 2 weeks). The diameter is about the size of a quarter and all the spines are clear and VERY thin. It has 2 'tentacle' like things that are slightly longer than its spines that come out of the middle and wave around... not sure if they are eating, or just defensive.

I wish I could take a pic, but my crappy camera on my cell phone doesn't pick it up

Anyone have an idea of what this might be? Should I take it out somehow?

Thanks!
Gabby

 

Oh my I have absolutely no clue. Sounds very strange too bad you can not get a pic. All I can do is suggest the links below. Now that you have peaked my interest please let us know what it turns out to be.

Indo Pacific Hitch Hikers

Look under the Odds and Ends grouping.;D

 

Oooh that's a really useful link!!! Unfortunately though, I don't see anything that looks like what I've got...
Hmm... maybe I could draw a pic??? don't know how helpful that would be though, with my artistic skills :

 

Take a look at this link. And you may want to give pagojoe a pm and see if he can assist you, john from reef cleaners as well.


http://www.3reef.com/forums/id/what-thing-87575.html

Love the avatar.

 

Well, I did my best to draw the thing... I will ask John as well...

Got a CUC from him coming this week

Hope my drawing helps.

 

Pretty good drawing!
Maybe a spaghetti worm?

 

spaghetti worm sounds like a good pick. what do the "spines" feel like? how do the retract? (if they retract all at the same time, curling in, or like multiple vacuum cords?). definitely ask pagojoe, walking encyclopedia...

 

Pagojoe's expertise is mainly focused on Indo-Pacific prosobranch marine gastropods, so any suggestions I give outside of that area should be considered suspect, lol. It does look like an excellent drawing of a spaghetti worm, however.

Cheers,



Don

 

if you look at the "thinner than hair" fragile spine things do they kinda have a sheen and subtly change their hue at different angles?

 

Thanks everyone for your awesome input! I haven't really poked at the critter much because it looks too fragile, but maybe later today, I will blast a bit of water at it or something and see how it reacts. I've seen the tentacles retract, but haven't seen the spines move at all.

I decided to watch it for a bit last night and it actually has a bunch more smaller tentacles that come out and sway with the two bigger ones... which makes me think that the spaghetti worm ID could be correct. I just didn't know spaghetti worms had spines???

I Pm'd pagojoe and he also thinks it's a spaghetti worm.

Dingo - yes the spines almost look like glass... they refract light and if you look at them right they have little rainbows in them.

Thanks everyone!