scary tentacles. help please

[rdnelson]

Good thread for a Halloween.

I agree with Jenn but then I am brand new to all this. It sure sounds like it although the one I have is a single filament. Here is a picture if it helps.
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[landon]

The pictures do not look like vermatids. It's a single long "string" with evenly distributed sub"strings". Vermatids release threads like a catapillar.

 

[landon]

The tentacles look more like these...
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[lepecube00]

The tentacles are not mucus like and have a very complex structure they also retract extremely fast. I would think based on what i am seeing about the vermetids that it is not the same thing. There seems to be a flat blobish thing attached to the toadstool in which the tentacle comes out of. There maybe one of these for each tentacle but there is just no way for me to see this. For somereason the tentacles are not out at the moment which is the first time in a few weeks. I dont believe i am over feeding but possible. I dont see any food debris on the sandbed or liverock.

 

[dakota9]

Those strings are filamented and not one long string.....

If David Blain were a Vermatid, I could understand it.......

I thought that's what the pics would revel.

I don't think it's a Vermatid

 

[lepecube00]

The photo that landon posted looks very similar imo. I am not sure if that's what is attached to but that is for sure what the tentacles look like.

 

[dakota9]

How long would you say these strings are?

 

[lepecube00]

I have the biocube 29 and they can easily stretch from the sandbed where the toadstool is to the top of the tank. So pretty long.

 

[irahmatulla]

+1 to NOT being vermetids. The vermatids cast out more of a web type and drag against the polyps of other coral as to pull things out of their mouth. (at least IME) and the retraction is not very quick. Almost makes me wonder about some other sort of tuberous worm. Like maybe a very simple fan worm, that is only casting one strand. I have seen barnacles in action, and they put out one fan quickly swiping for particle. (came from the ocean...i know i know) The strand reminds me of that.

 

[lepecube00]

Would barnacles or fan worms attach to coral though? I know for a fact that these strands are coming out of the toadstool. Whether there is something in or on the toadstool that is causing them i can not tell though. It doesnt seem to affect the coral it is out most of the time. It is occasionally closed up at night but not for long from what i have noticed. Im just afraid it will sting another coral. This thing is very sticky though. One got stuck to i pipette that i use to feed the tank and would not come off it ended up tearing apart.

 

[dakota9]

If it's actually embedded in a coral, and the coral isnt being harmed, then doesn't it stand to reason that it won't harm coral?

Too logical?

 

[schwaggs]

I can't help with the ID but am willing to trade you a toadstool that does not have strings if you want to be rid of then

IME, barnacles have quite a bit shorter filliment length but they are fast retracters and it seems plausible that the leather could grow around a barnacle.

 

[lepecube00]

But i have seen it stick too and nearly yank out my feather duster more than once. It has also got stuck to my clownfish.. i dont want these tentacles to hurt anything... Especially if they sting... Poor clownfish :/

 

[lepecube00]

I got one!. So there was one that i guess moved from the toadstool to a rock behind it. It is a flat worm thing. Im not sure if it is like the flat worm. But you could describe it as a flat worm. Anyway it was greenish/brown and i tried to get it with tweezers. I picked it up and it pretty much disenigrated. And floated around the tank in a billion pieces.. i am beyond confused... Hopefully the hermits will eat them up... So pretty much this doesnt get us anywhere. Except it can move.