ID of this odd tree branch looking creature?

[trmiv]

Any clue what this is? I found it today on a small rock that is under my main rock structure, so it is mostly in the dark. The picture isn't great, I know, it was very hard to photgraph. Anyway, it has a main stalk in the middle with what appears to be a round mouth, then you see those branches that extend out from the mouth. Each branch has tiny little branches coming off of it. If I watch it, sometimes a branch will curl up back towards the mouth like it caught something and is eating it. Any idea?

 

 

 

[tinyreef]

looks like a sea cucumber or sea apple-type of filter feeder.

[trmiv]

it's attached to the rock though, no free moving.

[tinyreef]

even if it's stationary now it could still be one of those i listed imo. (not saying definitively, just possibly)

 

for ex.: i had a pink cucumber stay in one place (filter feeding at the top of the tank, high flow) for over a year. never moved, even at night. and prior to that it had been staying slightly lower for about six months, also never moving other than swinging it's 'head' to feed.

 

i think it eventually was outcompeted for the plankton by the enormous amount of vermetid snails that dominate that system now. little booger dripping fuggers.

 

but i never quite understood why the cuke made even that slight alteration after six months. especially since there was no change in the flow dynamics or livestock. whatevah.

 

side note: btw i'm sorry, i actually meant 'sounds like' not 'looks like' in my initial reply.

[emokid]

yup cuke.

[ApocalypticSurf6]

basket star?, looks like it could be one, im almost positive they stay stationary

[trmiv]

Dr Ron on RC said it's a cuke, he posted a few pictures of them. Turns out it is free moving, it moved back in the tank more.