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Alien life form living in my tank.


Turbo

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I have some type of creature living in my tank and I have no idea what it is. Im hoping some one can identify it for me. It lives in what looks like a tube worm hole and has a hard protective case that covers it when it is alarmed and pulls into the tube. It has two long snail like antanne that come out and it expells a web like material into the water. This weblike material collects floating particels and then it sucks the web back in and eats it. I watched this for the first time last night. It was amazing. Any info is greatly appreciated. I dont have a digital camera so I cant take pics but anyone that might have a pic please feel free to post it on this thread so it can be identified.

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It's harmless...related to saltwater snails...worst case scenario, it gets a little annoying w/ the webs. But other than that, no need to worry.

 

To be more specific, tube-dwelling snail belonging to the family Vermetidae. The web-like projections are basically strings of mucus that it uses to fish out detritus and other crap to eat.

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Alright, good. Thanks for the quick response and lesson. I never knew there was such a thing as tube dwelling snails. Guess ya learn somthing every day on here.

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Originally posted by Turbo

Alright, good.  Thanks for the quick response and lesson.  I never knew there was such a thing as tube dwelling snails.  Guess ya learn somthing every day on here.

Before having one of these guys in my own tank...I never knew they existed either. =)

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Do you know where i can find a website that would contain pictures of all sorts of strange creatures you might find in your tank? I found two more stange looking things...One i think is a bristle worm but since i never saw one before i have no idea. Another is some creatute that lives in a hole in my live rock and has long, thread sized tenticles that come out of it. they are green and about three inches long. there's about ten tentacles and are about the thickness of a thread.

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The latter is a spaghetti worm....the body of the worm is in a burrow/canal in your LR...and you are right, the stringy things are its tentacles to bring food to its mouth....completely harmless.

 

And check here for bristle worm ID and other critters: http://melevsreef.com/id/

 

I know there are some other good ID guides...but I can't find them at the moment. Maybe others can chime in on this one. =)

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