Freaky

[Fluff]

Well, I have this thing on some of my liverock.com's rock. I first thought it was a tunicate, and it still may be but I've never seen one behave like this one. It seems for the most part stationary/attached at the middle but, stretches itself out quite a bit. And it behaves more wormlike in the way it moves. It's very active. Last night, one end of it opened up into a what looked like a flowerette, cool right? Well, then it wormed it's way over to one of the pest anemones in the tank and fought with it. The flower blew up like a ballon and they spared for a bit. There seems to be no damage done to either today but today I noticed this thing sitting there with a worm hanging out of it's "flower". Eating it I suppose. I have some pics but they aren't great. It was just really weird...... :? Sorry about the picture quality, you really have to look at the last one. (the one where it's blown up). My husband took tons of pics but, couldn't get a good one. I have about six of these things on the rocks but this is the only one so far to exhibit this behavior.

*edit* the pictures are in reverse order from what I entended.

 

[Phyl]

Hmmm... You have to worry about something that the Goddess of ID can't ID! All I can say is hmmmmmm. Interesting! Let us know when you figure out what it is!

 

[quarryshark]

Looks like a sea cucumber to me.
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/invertebrates/echinoderm/seacucumber/printout.shtml

 

[Fluff]

LOL Phyllis. You give me more credit than I deserve.

Yeah Kurt. That's what I thought. I have several of these things and this is the largest one. The only thing is, it seems to be attached to the rock. It will move around like a worm, stretching, deflating, inflating, etc, but it doesn't actually move anywhere. I checked on it this morning and it's still in the same spot. The article you sent says they anchor themselves to rocks. Perhaps that's the case here and they are just happy where they are so no need to move. I'll keep watching. Gotta love it.

 

[quarryshark]

Gotta love it.

This is what makes this hobby great.

 

[electrikat]

They were selling a cucumber in the lfs that looked exactly like that except for color. I didn't know they had things coming out of their heads until I saw the one at the store.

 

[stusclan]

Fluff, I've had one in my lr for months. Never seen it come out of its hole, but it shoots those flowery things out at least once a day. I'm afraid its gotten too big for its hole and can't get out LOL. They are cool little creatures - pretty sure its a cucumber from all descriptions I've been able to find.

 

[Fluff]

cucumber it is then. Thanks everyone. I just hope they aren't some of the real toxic ones since this rock is littered with them. :?

 

[electrikat]

I read they are only toxic if attacked or if they die.

 

[Phyl]

You give me more credit than I deserve

Says you! Glad to see you've got it figured out though!