Night Worms / creature???

[platapus]

I have a reef tank that is 4 months old now and I have an unidentified worm of some sort that only comes out at night??

I have never seen it all the way out of its hole. it is about a good 1/4 inch thick, and has stretched out about 5 inches, it has a flowery bristle that comes out of the front part of it and acts as a vacuum in the sand and rocks? It almost looks like a trunk of an elephant??

any one have any idea?

thanks

[Sailfin]

Hey Platapus....... I have a very similar critter in my 75. The only difference I note from your description, is the flowery bristle part. I've seen it stretch out to maybe 3 inches in length and given it's location high up on a rock, it can't reach the sea bed.

No harm, no foul at this point and I just keep a red eye on him at night. Hopefully, one of the other more senior, well versed in critterdom members, can help identify our masked beastie. :santa:

[tangirl]

I had the same thing - he was neat. He has moved on though - I haven't seen him in a long time. And no one ever ID'ed him for me either, sorry.

[platapus]

I have one large one (easily the size of your average fishing bait night crawler) which is located halfway up the reef, and another smaller one that is lower next to the sand bed, he filters the sand and the larger one cleans the rock in a 5" radius around him/her /it? - I will try to get a picture of the large one tonight and post it!

[tdwyatt]

originally posted by platypus
...it is about a good 1/4 inch thick, and has stretched out about 5 inches, it has a flowery bristle that comes out of the front part of it and acts as a vacuum in the sand and rocks? It almost looks like a trunk of an elephant??

Without a picture, it would be difficult to say with any surity, but it is prolly some type of Holothuroid sea cucumber. The "bristle" that you describe would fit the descriptiion of the tentacles surrounding the mouth that aid in feeding. In many Holothuroidae that feed in sand, these tentacles pull the particulate sand to the mouth, where the bacterial coating is digested off the surface of the granules and the "clean" sand is expelled. In other members of the genus, these oral tentacles may be finely branched and fern-like, acting as adhesive nets to capture particulate matter and small planktonic life from the water column. The cuke then cleans the tentacle off and re-expands it back into the water column to capture more food. Interestingly enough, these are actually echinoderms, related to sea stars and sea urchins. They display axial symmetry and are often pentagonally symmetric as well. I could not find a good picture of the substrate feeding cukes in action, but you might try a few of the echinoderm/holothuroidea sites or usethis site as a starting point (UCLA-Berlekey) and look for links.